Janet Mackinnon

MANAGED DECLINE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

2011-12-31T15:22:00.003Z

The current furore around whether Lord Howe recommended managed decline for the city of Liverpool following the riots of 1981 comes at a time when many question the commitment of the present government to the regeneration of England's major urban areas. If this latest controversy, following the 2011 unrest in English cities, re-invigorates urban and regional policy making it will be a good start to 2012.

However, the debate about what happened in Liverpool should be set in a broader context of the urban and industrial decline which has defined how much of Britain has developed, or not, since the 1970s. For managed decline has certainly been supported by successive governments over the past forty years or so, particularly with respect -or lack of - to the manufacturing base of major cities.

Indeed, anyone who has dealt with government departments knows full well that decisions inevitably resulting in managed decline, whether of particular areas, types of infrastructure or industrial sectors, are being made all the time; although largely, it has to be said, by faceless bureaucrats rather than politicians, who generally play second fiddle to the technocrats to whom England's economic and wider fate seems to have become entrusted.

The advent of regional government, and particularly the recent election of the Scottish National party, has nevertheless challenged the rule of technocracy in the United Kingdom, and a country arguably in managed decline during the latter part of the twentieth century has, with new democratic powers, undergone something of a renaissance. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that an arch-technocrat like the outgoing Cabinet Secretary should feel threatened.

CAMERON: WE'RE NOT ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

2011-12-09T15:33:00.003Z

Interviewed recently, a former member of the Bank of England policy committee sensibly observed that it was very good for the UK that we are not in the Eurozone, and very good for the Eurozone that the UK is not a member.

DEMOCRACY VS TECHNOCRACY IN THE UK

2011-11-22T11:12:00.007Z

The displacement of elected government ministers by an appointed group of technocrats in Italy has brought strong opposition from some in the British press, although the occasional academic correspondent favours a fully-fledged technocracy of the kind found in contemporary China.

However, I would argue that technocratic government has long existed in the UK, and has probably been the the norm, rather than the exception, in post-war Britain. The important issue is the implicitness of this arrangement in our country, as distinct from its explicitness in continental Europe. To illustrate this, it is useful to look at how economic growth has been defined and supported through policy-making and government intervention in the UK in the period since 2000.

During the Blair premiership, in one important respect "New Labour" meant precisely what it said on the bottle in the encouragement of mass migration as a means of transforming the UK employment market and creating a growth trajectory based upon a rapidly increasing population. This, combined with the well-documented expansion of financial services sector, together with the encouragement of what some describe as the "feral rich" to locate in Britain, gave rise to a rapid increase in property prices and subsequent speculative bubble.

At no time during the above process, which substantially gathered momentum following the re-election of New Labour in 2005, were the above policies explicitly identified to the UK electorate, many of whom by now had been bought off by the availability of cheap credit, although some politicians, notably Vince Cable for the Liberal Democrats, had begun to sound alarm bells on debt. Such alarms were soon proved to have real foundation as the strongly integrated (but never democratically mandated) UK and US financial systems imploded in 2008.

A British Coalition Government was then elected in 2010 with a political mandate to deal with the serious consequences of the banking crisis, together with other problems arising from the poor governance of the previous administration, including unregulated and unsustainable levels of migration.

During the early days of the Coalition much political rhetoric was directed at tackling these problems, but in retrospect remarkably little has actually been done, and it now appears that the present government is determined to embark upon a leveraged growth strategy, as distinct from promoting sustainable economic development, which is more or less identical to that of New Labour. One can only presume that this must be due to the existence of a technocratic "state within the state" of Britain which is beyond democratic accountability and political mastery because its very existence is implicit rather than explicit in our system of government.

SMART MONEY'S ON MERKEL AND LAGARDE

2011-11-12T14:05:00.010Z

Picture: The Telegraph

I have recently (and belatedly) started reading Germaine Greer's "The Whole Woman", published at the end of the twentieth century. There is a certain bitterness in later vintage Greer arising from the all too apparent flaws of "The Feminist Project", and in particular the failure of this to empower the "The Older Woman". However, it is not only older feminists who should reflect keenly on recent events in the Eurozone, where female power brokers Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde have this week seen off a male chauvinist of Imperial Roman proportions in Silvio Berlusconi.

For the partnership of German Chancellor and International Monetary Fund chief should be a concern not only for male politicians well-past their sell-by date, but also for fashionably young political leaders like David Cameron, and even President Obama, who have a penchant for coming across as onetime head boys now elevated to the position of school head master or college principal: ie still relatively inexperienced in the workings of European Realpolitik.

The present problems of the Eurozone may have provided a most welcome distraction from those of UK (and US) political economy, with Eurosceptic interests having a field day in the British media, but in the medium to longer term it is likely to be Germany and fellow members of a European Union premier league who are the winners. Indeed Britain should beware being cold-shouldered in both the "Special Relationship" and the New Europe.

With this in mind, Britannia might well do worse than look to "Mature Feminism" for help in renewing her political economy and the national psyche. Why, after all, should women of a certain age fare so well in foreign public life and be largely excluded from appearing in British visual media? The answer must lie amongst our male-dominated political media classes, and the many women who subscribe to their televisual reality. However, whilst this deep-rooted cultural problem may inspire outstanding feminist critics like Germaine Greer, it will prevent Britain from getting real with the challenges of the twenty first century.

VLADIMIR PUTIN'S NEW EASTERN APPROACHES

2011-10-07T15:45:00.008+01:00

Source: Financial Times

News that Vladimir Putin is to seek a third term of office as Russian president, making the creation of a Eurasian Union the centrepiece of his political enterprise, comes as the prospects of the European Project appear much diminished. Alternatively, has the image of Euroland politics been excessively tarnished in recent months by an Anglo-US government alliance keen to deflect attention away from its own economic woes?

My own take on the new geopolitics is that the Arab Awakening, together with the prospect of closer co-operation between Russia and former Soviet republics, is creating a zone of opportunity between the Tiger economies of China and India and key European and North American markets. In this context, it is important that the British government's policy response is not dominated by an overly ideological approach based on Conservative Euroscepticism.

Prime Minister Cameron, and even President Obama, should also remember that, whilst their Russian colleague may be short in stature, Mr Putin is widely regarded, along with German Chancellor Merkel with whom he shares an old Eastern Bloc hinterland, as a political heavyweight: a status which the two younger, and probably more transient, western leaders have yet to prove.

THE DOUBLE EDGE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

2011-08-27T15:50:00.005+01:00

Recent criticism of UK education - or its absence - in computer science by the head of Google no doubt has some justification.

However, the digital age has itself dumbed-down important areas of our personal and professional lives, as well as enriching these.

Many young people have professed themselves addicted to digital technologies which in recent weeks also facilitated destructive social disorder on our streets.

Digital sweatshops abound and few could not relate to some digital detox in their lives.

In the area of transport planning, for instance, whilst information technology has facilitated positive developments, professional practice has also become a slave to this.

The double edge of digital technology means that its usage can have regressive as well as progressive outcomes.

Critical thinking needs to be deployed and this is perhaps another shortcoming in UK education.

UK'S "OUT-OF-CONTROL CONSUMERIST ETHOS"

2011-08-24T11:47:00.004+01:00

A very interesting article appeared in yesterday's Guardian, some extracts from which follow;

"The recent riots in London and other big cities were the product of an "out-of-control consumerist ethos" which will have profound impacts for the UK economy, a leading City broker has said.

The report by the global head of research at Tullett Prebon, Tim Morgan, ....details recommendations to resolve what it sees as a political and economic malaise: new role models, policies to encourage savings, the channelling of private investment into creating rather than inflating assets, and greater public investment.

It warns: "We conclude that the rioting reflects a deeply flawed economic and social ethos, recklessly borrowed consumption, the breakdown both of top-end accountability and of trust in institutions, and severe failings by governments over more than two decades."

"The dominant ethos of 'I buy, therefore I am' needs to be challenged by a shift of emphasis from material to non-material values. David Cameron's 'big society' project may contribute to the inculcation of more socially-oriented values, but much more will need to be done to challenge the out-of-control consumerist ethos.

"The government, too, needs to consume less, and invest more. Government spending has increased by more than 50% in real terms over the last decade, but public investment has languished.....""

RIOTS - COMPREHENSIVE INQUIRY REQUIRED

2011-08-12T15:59:00.005+01:00

A wide ranging inquiry into this week's riots and disorder in London, English cities and towns is needed, of the kind now being called for by Labour leader Ed Miliband. A House of Commons inquiry conducted by the Home Affairs Select Committee will not have adequate scope to deal with all the contributory factors in this week's outbreak of violent unrest and looting, although it will no doubt have an important role in considering police intelligence and actions. A Royal (or Public) Commission may be a more suitable vehicle for the wider inquiry which will need to examine larger societal issues, such as the use of digital media technology and networks, as well as important area-based factors, including local deprivation and inequality, in the civil disorder.

Prime Minister David Cameron must not shy away from an in depth examination of the state of the national psyche, because it is precisely the shadow side of his "Big Society", in its tribalism, existential status anxiety, greed, absence of individual volition in the face of peer group pressure, addictions to quick fixes, and propensity to mass hysterias which needs to be confronted at the present time. These shortcomings are by no means confined to those young, and older, people who actually participated in criminal activities this week, but are increasingly part of wider socio-economic behaviour, and colluded in by business, the media and political classes.

RE-COMMITMENT TO REGENERATION NEEDED

2011-08-10T11:16:00.011+01:00

That a senior minister from the Communities Department was busy railing against a left-wing conspiracy he percieved amongst countryside conservation groups, who object to proposed changes to the planning system, just as unprecedented rioting broke out in London, is evidence of the growing reality gap between much of government and England's major urban areas.

This is not to say that the Coalition, or Conservative politicians, are more to blame for the outbreak of violent unrest, arson and looting than the previous administration and now political opposition. For the structural under-employment, worklessness and social breakdown of many urban communities was largely by-passed during Britain's boom years, except in so far as the aspirations of their growing young populations were raised unrealistically by the consumer society they have now turned upon through collective acts of theft and destruction.

Urban regeneration during New Labour was largely housing and retail-led, with city centres like those of Birmingham and Manchester becoming ever-expanding shopping malls, whilst deprivation in many immediately adjoining areas continued to be a major problem due to the ongoing decline of industries which once provided mass employment. The same is true across much of London. That shopping centres should now become the focus for unrest is not surprising, although the actions of the past few days remain inexcusable.

Whilst these are not riots of the kind experienced in the 1980s, with modern gang culture clearly playing a much more significant role than collective social and political grievance, some of the key underlying causes of earlier violent unrest have, nevertheless, not only remained untackled but increased over the last twenty five to thirty years. Amongst these is not just the quantitative decline of manufacturing employment, but the relocation of this to areas outside major cities.

This process was facilitated by the planning policies of Conservative governments during the 1980s, and is once again being encouraged by Coalition proposals currently subject to public consultation. In addition, the government's Regional Growth Fund appears to favour speculative greenfield development, ill-defined as "growth", of the kind which could well lead to a further exodus of employment from major urban areas, and, indeed, the inner parts of smaller cities.

Instead of these potentially disastrous measures, the Coalition must make a re-commitment to the regeneration of England's major cities, with the creation of skilled-employment a priority. Only when young people there have the prospect of work that offers the possibility of a genuine livelihood, and where their skills and contributions secure the respect of peers and the wider community, will the need to turn to collective criminality be sustainably reduced.

Management of deep-rooted economic problems through increased policing and social programmes of the kind pursued by New Labour may have the short-term affect of supressing the symptoms of malaise, but make the situation worse in the longer-term. However, much of the most sensible comment in the run up to the 2011 riots has come from "Blue Labour" Peer Maurice Glasman, someone who could well be part of a possible political solution, along with "Red Tories" and senior Liberal-Democrat MPs like Simon Hughes.

The present government, meanwhile, must make regeneration centre stage again, and the work of ministers and civil servants within the Department for Communities and Local Government needs to be re-prioritised accordingly. With Parliament re-called tomorrow, this British summer can no longer accommodate a political silly season.

ECONOMY: NO BOOM AND MORE BUST?

2011-08-05T15:29:00.004+01:00

The BBC radio 4 debate between supporters of Keynes and Hayek at the London School of Economics the other day was well-timed, with Business Secretary Vince Cable amongst others now pressing for more quantitative easing. This may be inevitable at the UK and international levels, but is not something I support, despite having Keynesian leanings, for the reasons given below.

Measures to protect the international banking system from collapse in 2008, a fate which would have been particularly disastrous for London as a global financial centre and the wider British economy as a consequence, were nevertheless always going to have highly undesirable side effects. These include preventing necessary downward price adjustments, in the property market and public service provision, for instance, which would provide a much more sustainable economic stimulus than further quantitative easing. The continuing inefficiency of the UK financial sector, reflected for instance in the poor performance of pension investments compared to other countries, also remains an ongoing problem with, as yet, little prospect of cure.

Therefore, like the majority of those attending the LSE debate the other day, I found myself siding with supporters of Hayek, up to a point. I do, however, believe that there is a strong case for highly focused public expenditure, which some will regard as Keynesian, in areas such as basic infrastructure maintenance and improvement - as distinct from high profile mega projects like high speed rail - social rented housing provision, and employment programmes for young people linked to environmental technologies and conservation.

Unfortunately, because the UK economy remains particularly exposed to the continuing shortcomings of the international financial system, currently focused on the problems of the Eurozone, and the Coalition has a Schizoid - in the Osborne-Cable politically split personality -approach to economic policy and government spending, my concern is that a necessarily nuanced response to the present crisis will not emerge and we will have a more of the same situation in the immediate future. The question is whether this can stave off a further down-turn/recession, or whether another bust is inevitable because the international and UK response to the banking crisis of 2008 was both inappropriate and inadequate.

LOWERING THE VOLUME OF FUTURE BABBLE

2011-07-26T16:35:00.006+01:00

I am currently reading "Future Babble" by Dan Gardner, and note the introductory chapter's reference to an IMF economist's view that his profession's "record of failure to predict recessions in virtually unblemished".

Although "Future Babble" seems to set up a dichotomy, rather than a discourse, between technological optimists and ecological pessimists, Gardner's perspicacity cannot be faulted.

The case of Robert Schiller, the Yale economist who wrote "Irrational Exuberance" in 2000, and revised this in 2005, is used by Gardner to illustrate a particular problem with professional experts. Although Schiller was one of the few economists to predict the global financial disaster of 2008, in his capacity as an adviser to a US bank he "felt the need to use restraint". The consensus at the bank was that there was no housing bubble in the US, a position Schiller's conceded because: "Deviating too far from consensus leaves one feeling potentially ostracised from the group, with the risk that one may be terminated".

"Groupthink", as Gardner argues, "is very much a disease that can strike experts. In fact, psychologist Irving Janis coined the term "groupthink" to describe expert behaviour...."

My own strategy for dealing with expert and wider non-expert "future babble", and indeed group think, is to treat these as background noise: something to be acknowledged, ignored and taken into account as appropriate.

ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS FOR THE BIG SOCIETY

2011-07-25T16:24:00.007+01:00

"There has got to be a new era of transparency, accountability and openness." Eric Pickles

Like most people, I'm still not sure what "The Big Society" is all about, although I like this quote from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government obtained from an Insight Public Affairs briefing on the subject.

THE MOTHER OF ALL MURDOCHS' ADVICE

2011-07-18T11:40:00.006+01:00

Perhaps the most salutary lesson to emerge from the furore surrounding Murdoch Media, currently engulfing the attentions of the British political upper classes, is the fact that Rupert's mother Dame Elisabeth, who is 102, has over the years strongly advised him against unwarranted journalistic invasions of privacy. Would that son had taken mother's advice!

THE OLD WOMAN MOUNTAIN DREAMING

2011-07-15T10:24:00.008+01:00

Realising that my previous posts may have offended fans of the Australian Thorny Devil, I decided to consult the treasure trove of Aboriginal myth, medicine and magic this morning - having previously outed myself as "The Witch of Worcester" - and found this gem on the Aboriginal Art Store website:

"The Old Woman Mountain Dreaming (or Thorny Devil Lizard) is a major Dreaming story from this region (called Utopia!*) and features prominently in several art works. This creation story tells of the journey of the female ancestors as they travelled across country pinpointing relevant significant sites essential for survival. In the artworks these references are depicted as a symbolic line of trees indicating the location of underground water, the seasonal cycle and location of various native food or the sites of waterholes."

More on Utopia Aboriginal Art can be found @ http://www.aboriginalartstore.com.au/

Applying the wisdom of Aboriginal female ancestors to current events in Britain, I would suggest that Mrs Rebekah Brooks, along with many others, might benefit from some time in the wilderness, having spent a few years there myself I can't recommend it enough!

Also drawing a personal message from "The Old Woman Mountain Dreaming", I feel recalled to attend to sustainable planning issues, and the protection of "significant sites essential for survival" around Worcester and Environs (and elsewhere) from speculative development. Once again the importance of "Water Issues" can't be underestimated.

The Witch of Worcester can be found @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com/

* My brackets

MEDIA ALTERNATIVES TO MOLOCH HORRIBUS*

2011-07-14T16:09:00.008+01:00

Yesterday I touched upon the importance of aims and objectives in decision-making, and today want to highlight the issue of alternative scenarios, options for achieving these and their possible downsides. In the case of British press and broadcasting, for instance, whilst foreign investment may desirable, one would not wish the Chinese state media to take a controlling stake in BSkyB.

*The Australian Thorny Devil at the helm of Murdoch Media.
Image: Wikipedia Media Commons

THE IMPORTANCE OF AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

2011-07-13T15:04:00.004+01:00

Assisting clients with clarification of their aims and objectives, and identifying the best means of achieving these, including different courses of action and the effects of these upon stakeholders, represent some of the most important tasks of the management consultant.

My advice to British politicians would be to remember these tasks in their dealings with Murdoch Media. Some may wish to oust the group from UK press and broadcasting, but I doubt this is the consensus view, which is probably represented in "better the devil you know".

MURDOCH MEDIA: A VERY BRITISH COUP?

2011-07-13T12:10:00.007+01:00

Whilst Ed Miliband has emerged as the leader of today's parliamentary coup intended to rout Murdoch Media's takeover of BSkyB, I'm still left wondering whether this remains a phony war.

The "leader image" shows an Australian Thorny Devil or Moloch Horridus.

THE WEAKNESS OF WESTERN CURRENCIES

2011-07-12T15:10:00.009+01:00

The "blame game" around the unfolding tale of corruption and malpractice at UK News International - just remember that the rot set in under New Labour and Ken Livingstone's mayoral responsibilities for the Metropolitan Police - provides an analogous side-show to the bigger, and largely untold, story concerning the current weakness of western currencies.

It is as if the so-called "Decline of the West" has now been consciously accepted and the only way is down, or downunder, East or Essex.

So politicians in the United States, along with those in the UK, look forward to a weakening of the Euro, because this improves the prospects of their own weak currencies. Indeed, much of the anti-Euro sentiment in the North American and British media derives from this express wish.

Meanwhile, supporters of the Euro within and outside the Eurozone have worked together to maintain the value of the currency, notwithstanding the media assault.

Perhaps we just need a "New Media"in the West. I certainly wouldn't give a "ForEx" for much of the present one, even the apparently respectable institutions behave little better than the rent boys and girls of political and corporate sentiment alot of the time.

GEORGE OSBORNE AND THE POUND SHOP

2011-07-11T11:32:00.009+01:00

My last post concluded with an expression of concern about the UK becoming the economic equivalent of a "Pound Shop", and I shall probe this comparison further today, but first some reference must be made to those "Events", dear boys and girls.

I refer, of course, to "News of the World's End" - and having purchased yesterday's final edition shall allude to this further -together with the re-entry of the "C-Word", or "Corruption", into the British political lexicon. Needless to say, some will feel that the four letter C-word may best describe some of the parties involved, but this blog won't devalue itself by resorting to such language.

It will, nevertheless, remind readers that it was George Osborne, as shadow chancellor, who recommended to David Cameron the appointment of Andy Coulson as his party's head of communications, following the departure of the latter from the News of the World. Readers should also be aware that Mr Osborne's judgement in the choice of some of his friends is no better, and possibly worse, than that of the Prime Minister. The role of a former Eton friend in the 2008 "Yachtgate Affair" is a case in point.

Indeed, I would strongly caution both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer against the appointment of people they might think of as friends to positions of power, and opt instead for relationships with colleagues of the kind described by former Conservative deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine in BBC Radio 4's "Meeting Myself Coming Back" series.

Returning to the currency issue, yesterday's News of the World did in fact carry a rather good article on the financial advantages of holidaying in Blackpool this Summer: something the Osborne family might like to consider. The particular reason for Blackpool being an increasing destination of choice is the weakness of the pound, particularly against the Euro.

The weakness of the pound is, however, very much a double-edged sword where the British economy is concerned because of our heavy reliance upon imports. Even manufacturing, widely regarded as being a beneficiary of the present situation, is disadvantaged because the raw materials and components of production are increasingly purchased abroad.

Moreover, the situation is made worse because much of Britain's manufacturing amounts to little more than assembly, something to which the Chancellor and Business Secretary Vince Cable should attend more. In effect, much of the UK is now the branch office/plant economy once used to describe the fate of the West Midlands.

The response of Mr Osborne and his colleagues to "re-balancing the economy" seems to consist mainly of policies to re-stimulate the construction sector, albeit that funding for projects - such as some grants made through the Regional Growth Fund (of which Lord Heseltine is Chairman) - is dressed up as support for manufacturing. The identification of "growth" with the development of greenfield sites is also reminiscent of planning policy during the Thatcher governments.

In short, much of the Coalition's efforts to date on economic policy hark back to the major regional infrastructure and construction programmes of the second half of the twentieth century. These palpably failed to support endogenous productive enterprise, and ultimately led to the retreat from these activities which characterised the New Labour regime in the first decade of the present millennium.

Instead, the Coalition should be focused on the creation of an added-value economy with a currency which reflects this. The nearest approximation to this economic state of affairs is Germany, and, notwithstanding the very real problems of the Eurozone, the relative strength of the Euro compared to UK Sterling reflects this situation. As noted in an earlier post, the Euro also has the advantage of its reserve currency status.

So what should the Chancellor of the Exchequer do about the Great British "Pound Shop"? Government policy should recognise that whilst bargain basements do have a role, these do not provide a model for sustainable economic development, as evidenced in any UK high street. The Chancellor must, therefore, act against practices within the financial sector which are currently undermining the value of UK plc, at the cost of making London less attractive to certain types of speculator.

Whether the present incumbent of Number 11 is up to this task is the question. I still favour "Big Beast" Ken Clarke for the role of chancellor. The sadly disgraced David Laws might have been up to the job, but probably not (again sadly) Vince Cable, for reasons I shall almost certainly cover in a future post. Ironically, however, failure on the current Chancellor's part could render British membership of the Euro a real option.

POLITICS: THESE BOYS & GIRLS WORRY ME

2011-07-08T10:46:00.003+01:00

Reflecting recently on the dangers to British parliamentarians of foreign holidays, I was drawn to a blog by George Warner in the Telegraph concerning the "Yachtgate Affair" of 2008 which included the refrain "that boy Osborne worries me".

The sight of our boyish Chancellor looking bemused on the Government's front benches as "News of the World's End" unfolded yesterday was a strong reminder that the politics of fatal distraction remain as much a clear and present danger as ever.

For whatever Andy Coulson's misdemeanors, it must be remembered that, unlike his New Labour predecessor and another onetime tabloid editor, David Cameron's former head of communications did not falsify documents which played a key role in the run up to the Iraq war.

Nevertheless, Coulson's appointment was clearly a misjudgement on the part of our Prime Minister, of the kind which British politics has been riddled for the past ten years or so and from which shows few signs of recovery.

A recent article in the Telegraph by the Chic-Lit author Louise Bagshawe, who as a Conservative MP now uses her new married name of Mensch, illustrates why the generation of MPs who have come to power since 2000 are prone to such misjudgements.

The subject of the Bagshawe-Mensch article is former New Labour minister, and wife of shadow chancellor Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper, for whom the lady author - who was for a time a member of the New Labour Party - seems to have developed a crush.

These same sex crushes, often amongst married people, seem to characterise relationships amongst the political and media classes, compromising professional judgements and contributing to Britain's recent poor record of government.

They are, in my view, a particular shortcoming of people who attend same sex private schools, although by no means the exclusive preserve of such institutions. Vain men and women of the kind attracted to careers in politics and the media are most prone to such crushes.

Therefore, I would especially caution "Geogeous George" Osborne in his choice of advisors, for the clear and present danger in my view is UK plc becoming the economic equivalent of a "Pound Shop" if he doesn't attend to attend to issues currently underlying the weakness of Sterling.

These boys and girls worry me.

POST-FEMINIST MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE

2011-07-07T11:56:00.003+01:00

Like most women, I want to see my gender better represented in positions of power. However, I'm not convinced that women make better or more progressive managers than men. The case of Murdoch media moll Rebekah Brooks (nee Wade) is a classic example of female management providing a cover for practices even most hardened male hacks would blench at. Women can be just as unethical, ruthless and unenlightened as men, so whilst supporting the IMF's appointment of Madame Lagarde, I disagree with her that a "Lehman Sisters" might have averted the banking crisis.

COMETH THE HOUR, COMETH THE WOMAN

2011-07-05T10:24:00.004+01:00

News that Gina Reinhart, heiress to an Australian mining empire, is likely to become the world's richest person - with a personal net worth estimated at $100 billion - comes as Christine Lagarde is made executive head of the International Monetary Fund.

The latter appointment has noticeably bought complaints from some male economists, as Lagarde was an international lawyer before taking up her previous position as French finance minister.

However, Reinhart's potential replacement of Microsoft's Bill Gates (or the founder of IKEA according to some reports) as the wealthiest person on the planet does not seem to have raised many eyebrows.

What it does reflect is the continuing importance of natural assets and resources - coal and iron in this case - to economic development, something the male-dominated economics profession has failed to adequately acknowledge in recent years.

Indeed their frequent inability to see elephants in the room is one very good reason for the IMF to appoint a non-economist as its new head, although Madame Lagarde should remember not to forget her spectacles (as she did at her first meeting as a member of the French government).

PUTTING THE POLITICAL BACK INTO ECONOMY

2011-06-18T15:18:00.010+01:00

The apparent return of "Greek Riot Dog Kanellos" to the political scene co-incides with the latest crisis in that country's economy. With the conditions of Greece's earlier bailout proving too onerous, the European sovereign debt problem has come to the fore yet again and with it questions over the sustainability of the Euro. However, the Euro will survive, whatever the fate of the Greeks, because politics and economics are inextricably linked. Germany will continue to back the Euro, to which Chancellor Angela Merkel only yesterday ascribed the renaissance of her country's economy. In addition, the Euro has strong support amongst countries outside Europe such as Russia, who want a reserve currency alternative to the United States Dollar.

As a Eurosceptic nation, this wider significance of the Euro is not generally reflected in the British media. UK Sterling is, after all, the world's third largest reserve country, with the Euro in second place. There are many here no doubt who would like this situation reversed, and media coverage of the European political economy tends to reflect this. My observation, incidentally, is not intended to support the case for Britain joining the Euro, which I accept is unforeseeable at the present time. What I do want is much better and more balanced coverage of Eurozone issues over here. BBC Trust Chairman, Lord Patten please take note.

For if one is to believe its media, Britain is a nation increasingly obsessed with money, sex and, or so it seems, death, but rather less interested in religion, science and technology. Ideology, however, does not seem to register on the radar of the national psyche. This is a serious problem because politics and economics are not just about sex and money, and they are certainly not a science. Yet notwithstanding our apparent reluctance to recognise the role of ideologies, these nevertheless exert an imperceptible control on issues which the British regard as important, and thus need to be "outed" rather more than the dalliances of our politicians.

As I noted near the beginning of this blog in 2006, the international theatre director Peter Hall has observed that sex is used to divert attention away from politics in Britain. A new website called http://www.sexymp.co.uk/ reflects this very well. It has, therefore, occurred to me that a survey of the open ideological affiliations, as well as more covert sympathies, of Members of Parliament and the House of Lords is called for at the present time. Casting around for a potential sponsor for such a survey, august media institutions like the Financial Times and Economist Group spring to mind, but perhaps it is rather to some foreign media organisation that I should look.

BBC Analysis: Mis-Selling of Financial Services

2011-06-13T11:46:00.011+01:00

Juxtaposition of the repeated BBC radio 4's Analysis with the second airing of Money Box yesterday evening created an opportunity for some interesting reflection, but before giving this I want to tell a short cautionary tale.

In the early 1990s, I worked for a professional services firm in a tallish office building opposite the Old Bailey. The young star economist of my group, which occupied an upper floor of the building, came in one weekend to dabble with his computer model. Feeling that his brain was in need of increased oxygenation, he endeavoured to open a non-opening window with some force, very nearly defenestrating himself and causing a large pane of glass to crash to the ground in many shards.

This experience, combined with the property bust (which followed a boom) and international recession of the same era, taught me that a crash might accompany anything to do with economists and their supposedly scientific discipline.

Fast forward to yesterday evening, and my second hearing of BBC Radio 4's Analysis - yes, I felt compelled to listen to this programme twice - began to ring internal alarm bells, as Janan Ganesh of The Economist made some rather astounding statements.

First of all, words to the effect of "four years on from the first intimations of the great crash" were used. Excuse me, Mr Ganesh, but many people had "intimations" of a bubble likely to burst well before 2007. Then there was reference to economic recessions arising from problems in financial services being less severe than those linked to manufacturing: this "thesis" being used by Mr Ganesh to caution the present Government against being too zealous in re-balancing the economy away from the banking sector.

In short, my response to this "analysis" was very similar to the BBC's own advisers on hearing the mis-selling of financial products to under-cover customers by the staff of major banks, as reported in the pre-ceding Money Box programme.

THE PHONEY WAR FOR MIDDLE ENGLAND

2011-06-10T15:52:00.004+01:00

"All pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others"

This doodle of a spinning pig was supposedly drawn by shadow chancellor Ed Balls during a plot to purge New Labour of Tony Blair's premiership in favour of a government led by Comrade Brown. The rest, as they say, is history.

Or it would be had today's Telegraph newspaper not chosen to remind its readers of those dark days, and thereby create a remarkable spin amongst certain sections of the chattering classes, of a kind the Balls doodle might well symbolise.

So why should Telegraph readers be interested in this old story? The answer lies in a politically modified animal which I shall call the New Labour Conservative. This creature, it should be emphasised, is not Red Tory or Blue Labour, but represents an equally important political constituency in Middle England.

The New Labour Conservative is typically a household which identifies itself as professional, and where one partner works in the public sector. This aspirational social unit was championed during the "Christian democracy" of Tony Blair's government, but wasn't so sure about Gordon Brown, particularly when the economy went pear-shaped.

However, neither has the Coalition's deficit reduction programme and proposed changes to public services gone down well with the New Labour Conservative. Incidentally, this politically modified animal includes a good many Lib-Dem (and Tory) councillors who don't like the downsizing of their fiefdoms, anymore than Liverpool Trots liked Neil Kinnock calling the shots.

However, the fact remains that New Labour created a Britain - and an aspirational Middle England in its own image - with a non-viable model of political economy. As politicians of the left, right and centre know very well, only radical structural transformation can re-create a sustainable future. The important issues in this tectonic shift, I would suggest, are the environment and a re-ordering of social well-being, as I'm sure Dr Rowan Williams would agree.

INDIA AND THE GODS OF BIG THINGS

2011-06-07T10:54:00.012+01:00

It was something of a curry night on BBC Radio yesterday with a very interesting programme on "blogging against bribery" at 8pm on 4, and later a Night Waves interview with Arundhati Roy and Siddhartha Deb on their new books. Amitav Ghosh is on 3's Night Waves this evening.

It is testimony to the great challenges of contemporary India that the country has created some of the best English language writing of the present time, leading to an obvious comparison with Victorian literature.

Ghosh has chosen the early Victorian period for his Ibis Trilogy, the second novel of which, River of Smoke, has just been published. Speaking of the first volume, Sea of Poppies, a few years ago, Ghosh was asked to explain the book's underlying sense of optimism, notwithstanding the dire circumstances of its story. Ghosh responded to the effect that people facing great challenges in their daily lives often have a remarkable sense of hope.

Since her success with The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy has relinquished fiction for writing about the immense social and environmental problems of modern India, and is now recognised around the world as one of the country's foremost critics of unsustainable development. In her latest book, Broken Republic, she tackles the pressures facing India's tribal peoples and their homelands, including forced eviction by government militia, and their recourse to assistance from Maoist guerrillas.

Roy's apparent support for Maoist groups drew some stern questioning from Nigh Waves host Rana Mitter, until Siddhartha Deb pointed out that a group of people interviewed for his book, The Beautiful and the Damned, who lived near a toxic waste site on the outskirts of Hyderabad, having exhausted all other options, also had to look to such groups for help.

All in all, the interview with Roy and Deb was red hot. A great shame that Mitter had to cut this short to cover items, which, although interesting, paled into insignificance compared to the earlier exchange.

MONKEY BUSINESS IN BRITISH POLITICS

2011-06-06T11:05:00.008+01:00

This summer will see the opening in British cinemas of a prequel to "The Planet of the Apes" called "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", providing the back story to the primate plot which eventually led to their future superior species status.

As for monkey business in British politics, and particularly in local government, we should be grateful for the Tweeter called Mr Monkey for raising its profile. The Mail newspaper revealed on Saturday: one council in South Tyneside "may have an awful lot to hide".

This story obviously resonates with readers of the paper, and one commentator has urged the prime minister to act because "we are all in this together". The monkey business goes much deeper than local authorities, although these might be a good place to start.

For the business of government and public services is increasingly that of contract and asset management, usually involving close working with major private firms. Any one who has attempted to question such relationships will know how just how difficult this can be, and why resort to blogging may be the only real option available.

Corruption is to a significant extent a cultural blind-spot in British politics - personally, I regard MPs expenses as small beer - and many in government and public life will all but deny its existence on our home shores, preferring to expend energy in lambasting organisations like FIFA and foreigners in general by way of media distraction.

An alternative interpretation may be that our supposed ruling classes already live on a different planet to the rest of us.

Local Government - CRISIS? WHAT IS A CRISIS?

2011-05-31T10:30:00.006+01:00

I'm surprised the BBC television news channel found time to cover any international affairs yesterday, as it seemed to have been transformed into a sports station, or rather a commercial football channel. So let me remind trust board members than many of us wish that FIFA, along with professional football in general, would disappear permanently up their large rear orifice. Having got this off my chest, I do feel that the FIFA president's question during yesterday's "very important" press conference -"not a bazaar" as he informed the media - is one which needs tackling.

So let me focus on Britain's local democratic deficit, and ask why so many major planning inquiries are held in football stadia. In the good old days, these events typically took place in city and town halls, although I attended one in the august surrounds of the Old Royal Military Academy at Woolwich (later redeveloped). The apparent closeness of the Planning Inspectorate and local authorities to commercial football, itself the source of some controversial development applications, is precisely the kind of professional relationship which raises concerns amongst those who suspect officials, if not of actual corruption, then of collusion with business interests.

The fact that most large councils have now entered the social media arena also raises important issues of accountability and, inevitably, funding, as highlighted in the case of South Tyneside Council and a Tweeter called Mr Monkey over the weekend. This English local authority has pursued Mr Monkey through the Californian legal system and gained access to his Twitter account, along with that of an independent councillor, all for less than US$100k (or was that £s Sterling ?) according to a council spokesman. That people should feel the need to resort to anonymous blogging to make claims against council officials indicates that if English local democracy, to quote FIFA president,is "not in crisis...we are in some difficulties".

SHARON SHOESMITH AND BABY PETER

2011-05-28T15:28:00.004+01:00

Whilst this blog generally tries to steer clear of "children, schools and families", the case of Sharon Shoesmith is so important that, on this occasion, I feel the need to wade in.

Although usually unsympathetic to the highly-paid social bureaucrat, I do think that Ms Shoesmith became the victim of a political game of football between Gordon Brown and David Cameron in the final years of New Labour. There are important differences between accountability and media fuelled witch hunts of the kind to which Ms Shoesmith fell victim. Yesterday's court judgement has recognised this.

The cases of Sharon Shoesmith, the former head of education and social services in the London Borough of Haringey, and Baby Peter, the child neglected, abused, and finally killed by the adults who supposedly cared for him, raises a range of issues which need to be considered separately.

Firstly, the creation of a super-department for children, schools and families presided over by Ed Balls was a mistake. Social care fits better with health than education, and it was ultimately the medical profession that failed Baby Peter, whose serious injuries were left undiagnosed, rather than his social workers.

Secondly, as secretary of state Balls was wrong to intervene personally in having Ms Shoesmith sacked. The failures of her council department in managing education and social services were, after all, partly a consequence of the flawed government re-organisation led by him.

Thirdly, the strong tendency under New Labour for power in public sector organisations to concentrate in the hands of a relatively small number of highly-paid officials has ultimately made effective day-to-day hands-on management virtually impossible. Much flatter and more accountable structures are required, with remuneration which reflects this.

Finally, the previous government adopted what can only be described as a naive approach to children, parenting and families, and it looks very much like the present administration will continue this. Whist Balls, Brown, and Cameron are all, I am sure, excellent parents, many people are not. It might well behove governments, therefore, to recognise this in the benefit system and actively discourage those likely to be unsuited to parenthood from having children.

HENRY KISSINGER ON CHINA THEN AND NOW

2011-05-26T15:27:00.004+01:00

Rana Mitter's BBC Radio 3 Night Waves interview with former US Secretary of State Dr Kenry Kissinger was well worth tuning into, albeit that Mitter's questioning was rather loud and Kissinger's replies rather quiet.

The interview on China, also the name of a book which Kissinger has just had published on this subject, focused on the Mao Zedong years, although there were also some rather chilling comments on current US-China relations.

Asked by Mitter if he was an admirer of Mao Zedong, Kissinger responded that he admired the former Chinese leader's grasp of strategy, both at home and in international affairs, but deplored the oppression and genocides of Mao's regime.

However, although Mao is widely regarded as one of the architects of modern China, Kissinger said that he and his contemporaries in the early 1970s could not have imagined the magnitude of the country's transformation over the next twenty five years.

The interview sounded a cautionary note about the future of US-China relations, with references to Britain and Germany in the early twentieth century. Let's hope the current G8 Summit meeting in France keeps this in mind.

OECD - SOME BAD NEWS AND SOME GOOD

2011-05-25T16:34:00.007+01:00

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has today warned of the threat of global stagflation due to rising commodity prices and slower than expected growth.

This comes at the same time as the the OECD publishes a major report entitled "Towards Green Growth", which is upbeat on the potential of sustainable development to tackle global economic and other problems whilst meeting environmental sustainability criteria. Monitoring and delivery mechanisms are also identified.

The good news and the bad has particular relevance for China, the engine of the world economy, whose growth forecast for this year has been downgraded by the OECD.

A report released by the Chinese government in 2006 revealed that roughly 3% of the country's annual GDP had been offset by economic loss through environmental degradation - a figure than some think is too conservative (Nature 448, 2007).

The key issue is whether "green growth" - an oxymoron for many environmentalists - can become a reality, and within a realistic timescale. Political interventions will be essential, and the OECD has highlighted the use of government bonds as a core funding mechanism for developing renewables and other green technologies.

From Tabloid Paradise To Green Utopias & More....

2011-05-23T15:16:00.009+01:00

The past week or so has been something of a golden age for the tabloid press and sections of the new media, as diplomatic and legal channels are by-passed and the crimes and misdemeanors of the powerful and famous laid bare.

However, the visit of the US President (O'Bama in Ireland) to the British Isles, along with a new ash cloud, will, I trust, return a more serious spin to current affairs.

I've decided that the present may be a good time to revisit some Green Utopias - of which Hawaii, the Emerald Isle, and, indeed, our very own Albion might claim to be three - and shall be exploring these through the medium of the blogosphere in the coming weeks.

As the dominant discourse is dystopian, I shall also be spending time on the dark side, and offer some exegesis on the duality of apocalyptic predictions from various perspectives.

The first installment of this exploration - Green Utopias Revisited - can be found @ http://woodwose.wordpress.com/

ENERGY CONSERVATION AND RENEWABLES

2011-05-20T11:28:00.008+01:00

Jeremy Leggett, the founder and chairman of company Solarcentury, has made some of the most sensible comments on "the greenest government ever" during the past week.

Whilst welcoming the Coalition's new targets for cuts in UK carbon emissions by 2025, Mr Leggett has also pointed out the present government's "emerging record" on the environment is "actually starting to look worse than their predecessors"(Cameron falls short on his green promise, Financial Times, 18 May 2011).

Meanwhile, Japan is still coming to terms with the consequences of nuclear disaster, including major electricity shortages. Energy conservation is now regarded as one of the country's most important tasks, along with harnessing plentiful geothermal power opportunities.

For renewables to make a contribution to energy production of the scale aspired to by the non-nuclear green movement, the starting point is cleary conservation, something their recent great misfortune has brought home to the Japanese.

The development of renewables then has to be locationally-appropriate, something which has not fully registered with promoters, largely due to the availability of inappropriate financial incentives.

In addition, a truly renewable energy future would depend on unprecedented international co-operation, with energy transmission supergrids deployed to distribute power from different regions of the globe according to the availability of supply and demand.

These are the sorts of issues which politicians, policy-makers, those concerned with implementation as well as the media should be headlining. Instead we have the much-feted "Jam Tomorrow Generation" (see my post of 11 May) fiddling as usual whilst the planet burns.

WELCOME TO CAFE ROCCO !

2011-05-17T16:02:00.002+01:00

As we live in serious times, I've opted for something sweeter on the menu today and would extend an invitation to Cafe Rocco @ www.caferocco.com

THE JAM TOMORROW GENERATION SURELY

2011-05-11T11:25:00.008+01:00

Whilst I generally find Anne McElvoy's radio broadcasts interesting and perceptive, I can't say this of her current BBC Radio 4 series on "The Jam Generation".

As someone who attended a superb Jam concert at Finsbury Park's old Rainbow venue - subsequently a centre for radical Islam - in the cold winter of 1980, I find myself with very little in common with the people of her "Jam Generation".

These are politicians who "came of age" during the period of unsustainable economic growth between the early 1990s and 2007, and include the present prime minister, his deputy and key people from New Labour like shadow chancellor Ed Balls.

When I left the same university as Balls in 1983, the thought of being a "leader writer for the Financial Times at the age of twenty-two" would have been beyond my wildest dreams.

Instead self-employment and economic migration led me to my own"jihad" - in its true meaning of "struggle" - and I returned to Britain to fight "The War on Traffic" through legal channels.

With regard to Ann McElvoy's later generation of politicians, surely these are best collectively summed in words attributed to Tony Benn: "Some of the jam* we thought was for tomorrow, we've already eaten".

*PS - Jam might serve as an analogy to finite resources such as oil.

THE PROGRESSIVE POLITICS SPECTRUM

2011-05-07T16:13:00.004+01:00

Some of the most perceptive political commentary in recent years has come, on the left, from the music journalist John Harris for the Guardian, and, on the right, from Mail columnist and theatre critic Quentin Letts.

Yesterday, Harris bemoaned the absence of a progressive majority in the British electorate, reflected in their rejection of AV, and Letts attacked the Left's use of the word progressive in political discourse.

In fact, the local elections did demonstrate progressive tendencies, of the sort which Harris and Letts should approve, in the removal of the BNP from Stoke-on-Trent Council (which is now Labour-controlled), the performance of the Green Party, and the success of "It's Our County" in Letts's home turf of Herefordshire.

As my own politics are somewhere between those of Harris and Letts, I can, however, both sympathise with the view there is a progressive deficit in British politics, and accept that this can be viewed from the left, right, and, indeed, the centre ground.

The general consensus seems to be that Whitehall government is remote and something needs to be done about this, so it behoves politicians of all parties and commentators of all colours to discourse on just what this might be.

BRITAIN AND THE POLITICS OF PLURALISM

2011-05-06T11:11:00.005+01:00

As my post of today will cover elections in the United Kingdom, I would just like to re-iterate that this blog is not wedded to a political party, nor intends to hitch its commentary wagon to any at the present time. Although events could, of course, change this situation.

Hopefully, the overall election outcome will serve the equilibrium of the British political ecosystem, and confirm the plurality of our national politics. In this respect, it can be regarded as progressive, whatever the particular fate of the "Alternative Vote".

As someone who voted Liberal Democrat in the General Election and still support a Coalition Government, I'm naturally sorry for the party's performance.

However, the AV issue came up too early in the political term, and distracted Lib Dems in government from more burning issues. I voted "No", incidentally.

The environment is for me one of those burning issues, literally as it unfortunately transpires, and the present Government has certainly not lived up to its promise of being the greenest ever.

With regard to the performance of Labour, the party should be congratulated on its success in the English and Welsh elections.

From my own experience, I have to support the generalisation that Labour runs local and regional government better than the Conservatives - although I'm open-minded on the London question just now - whilst the Tories run the country better.

"Ken Livingstone of the North", Alex Salmond has obviously been a clear winner. The victory of the SNP is also a testimony to the ongoing remoteness of London-based government.

The apparent continuing semi-detachment of Westminster from the rest of the country would have made a referendum on an English National Assembly more meaningful than one on AV.

EVENTS, DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS, EVENTS !

2011-05-04T15:38:00.004+01:00

I realise that my last post of April was guilty of some gender bias, and want to rectify this today.

A few years ago, I possibly offended a former male friend by quoting Harold Macmillan's "Events dear boy, events" in response to an email. We haven't been in contact since, but the reality is that our mutual life narratives had diverged some years before.

Nevertheless, as this particular friendship was an important one for a time I want to acknowledge it by considering the relationship between narratives and events now.

The British, and particularly the English, narrative frequently takes the form of a costume drama, of which the recent Royal Wedding is a fine example.

By contrast, the American psyche seems to prefer the action movie, especially with Western references. The killing of the outlaw Bin Laden reflects this.

Given that one set of events followed so fast upon the other, David Cameron must be reflecting that a weekend is a long time in global politics.

On the home front, what might tomorrow's events - namely elections covering local government in England, the devolved administrations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the Alternative Vote - hold for the Prime Minister ?

I would suggest that Mr Cameron might wish to consider the portent of last week's Royal Wedding runaway horse. On AV, a win for first past the post might result in Chris Huhne chucking Nick Clegg and bolting off to the Labour Camp.

With regard to "The Scottish Play", but not the one seen earlier this week by Prince Charles, Alex Salmond is likely to the overall winner.

Nevertheless, whilst for Macmillan "events" might be the worst thing that could happen to a government, I'm personally more upbeat about their consequences for these reasons.

The departure of Chris Huhne would, after all, enable the Coalition Government to wider its appeal by offering Caroline Lucas of the UK Green Party the position of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

A Huhne cohabitation with the Labour Party might also enable leader Ed Miliband to deal with Comrade Balls, which would undoubtedly contribute to the well-being of the nation's political ecology.

Yes, events, dear boys and girls, may be for the better as well as for the worse !

MAY DAY 2011 - GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT

2011-05-02T19:46:00.003+01:00

A Feminist Take On The New Royal Family And Other Matters

2011-04-30T15:19:00.015+01:00

Image by courtesy of Wikipedia

Feminism, like support for slow growth, skepticism of nuclear power, and, indeed, socialism, is out of fashion. As a not-so-fashionista, I will, therefore, use her as lens to look upon yesterday's Royal Wedding. I should also point out that I don't mind a bit of Gentleman's Relish* in the humour department, although my tastes almost certainly differ from those of our Prime Minister and his deputy.

Yesterday, I had intended a diet free of royal nuptials, but was overcome by a strong desire to sit down in front of the television and do nothing for a couple of hours, as well as the excuse for a glass of alcohol at lunchtime, along with most other Britons. It all turned out to be quite enjoyable : my only criticism being that the equestrian formation which escorted the newly weds back to the palace occasionally looked like something out of a John Wayne film.

This set me wondering what Princess Ann made of it all: the horses, I mean. Now there's a lady that could keep David Cameron on the bit : there would certainly be no "Calm down, Ma'ams" or other speaking out of turn, nor any kind of misbehaviour tolerated amongst the two grey geldings - and their postilions - leading the Coalition Government carriage. She would also, I am sure, bluntly advise the Leader of the Opposition to have the other Mr Ed re-schooled.

Moving on to the matter of succession, I'm glad that this has come up again recently. Personally, I would favour positive discrimination in favour of female offspring, starting with Princess Ann who would succeed her brother Charles as quickly as possible, leaving Zara and her soon to be rugby-player husband as the New Royal Couple. This should continue the reign of stalwart women exemplified in the present Queen Elizabeth.

As to the event of yesterday, surely this was an apotheosis of the spirit of New Labour, but with its prime movers left to be ghosts at the feast, with Ken Livingstone invited instead. It just goes to show that the general matter of transport, and not just getting a wedding party to and from one's palace, may be close to Her Majesty's heart and that the former - and possibly future - London Mayor's introduction of the congestion charge is well regarded in Royal Zones.

* A condiment (? by Royal Appointment)

BRITAIN - A NATION OF DISPLACED DISCOURSE

2011-04-28T15:47:00.006+01:00

The term "displaced discourse" has been used in media studies to identify certain tendencies, notably in television and the popular press, whereby a narrowly focused preoccupation, for instance with the private lives of celebrities, displaces wider coverage of changing social values. However, in this post I want to use the term more loosely to describe the displacement of significant issues in favour of less important and sometimes trivial public discourse. Yesterday's House of Commons exchange between the Labour MP, and former minister, Angela Eagle and Prime Minister David Cameron is a good example of this.

Ms Eagle was challenging the Government's proposed changes to the National Health Service when she was told my Mr Cameron to "Calm down, dear...and listen to the doctor". The doctor in question was in fact the PM's medical colleague Dr Howard Stoat, although it should be noted that Mr Cameron has a tendency to adopt the manner of a hospital doctor on his rounds when going about the country on political business. "Calm down, dear" was, of course, a reference to a well-known Michael Winner television advertisement for an insurance company. Although it is also the kind of thing a doctor might have said to a colleague or patient in the "Carry On" series.

The Labour front bench team were not amused. Deputy party leader Harriet Harman called upon Mr Cameron to apologise for the patronising and sexist remark, forgetting that her predecessor, the now Lord Prescott, had caused similar offense to a French female minister with an apparently male chauvinist comment. Whilst I agree that the PM was behaving in a patronising way to Ms Eagle, and possibly being sexist to boot, neither feminism nor the national sense of humour were advanced during New Labour's time in office, and Ms Eagle, for whom I have some respect, was made to look more foolish by the reaction of her colleagues to Mr Cameron's jest than she was by being told to "Calm down, dear".

So what was yesterday's frisson in the House of Commons really all about? The situation was almost certainly aggravated because Angela Eagle is a lesbian, who, according to Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts had been shouting at the PM like a "tattooed stevedore". If Ms Eagle was indeed doing this, I can indeed sympathise with her, for what woman wouldn't have occasion to feel angry from time to time with someone as smug and privileged as Mr Cameron. I've felt a strong urge to punch such men in the face myself, especially when they have a grinning side-kick like Nick Clegg. Yet equally I find myself with little truck for privileged and smug women like Harriet Harman and her New Labour sisterhood.

For in reality, there isn't much difference between the social values of the Coalition Government and the previous administration. Indeed I would credit Tony Blair rather more than David Cameron with creating the conditions for tomorrow's Royal Wedding between Prince William and "Kate the Commoner", and I'm most surprised that the Blairs - and the Browns for that matter - haven't been invited. Not very correct form Ma'am, if you don't mind me saying so ! Perhaps it is this exclusion from "the wedding of the century" - only Ed Miliband and his partner are going - which has made the Labour front benches so tetchy. If so, my advice is simply this: "Calm down dears, it's only a commercial !"

THE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO POWER POLITICS

2011-04-26T09:53:00.007+01:00

One of the "party-tricks" of a central character in Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" is to foretell the Apocalypse. The character, Lebedyev, is also something of a entrepreneur and fixer in the contemporary mold.

Given this Apocalyptic reference in my current fictional reading, I was fascinated to learn in a BBC Radio 4 programme on Chernobyl broadcast yesterday that the town's name translates into English as "wormwood" which also has strong associations with the end of the world.

This was excellent "low budget, high value" broadcasting incidentally, in stark contrast to the political white noise which seems to have beset much of the BBC in recent days. Is the media silly season getting earlier with global warming, I wonder ?

For who, other than Nick Clegg, really cares whether David Cameron has given an unpaid internship in his constituency office to the offspring of an Oxfordshire neighbour. I'm far more interested in whether the Government is dispensing rather more lucrative favours to its friends.

This was certainly the case with New Labour, and we should remind ourselves that prime minister Gordon Brown's brother was head of communications at the French-owned company EDF when it secured a deal which may yet determine the future of Britain's civil nuclear policy.

The response of the Liberal-Democrat component of the Coalition Government to this situation has been extremely disappointing, given that Chris Huhne and Vince Cable hold the key energy, and climate change, and business and innovation portfolios.

Indeed, it would seem that on energy policy, and not just on the "Alternative Vote" that the Lib-Dems favour co-habitation with Labour, something on which independent-minded Tories of the "Conservative Home" persuasion might reflect.

They will also note that Gordon Brown's financial largess, as prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer, to the international business community, which our own country could ill-afford, has been recognised by the World Economic Forum to the tune of £750k per annum.

This "allowance" - like Blair, Brown seems to have pull on the grace and favour circuit - will no doubt support many internships and possibly the odd consultancy for Lord Mandelson's new firm "Global Counsel".

The present British prime minister and his deputy, meanwhile, need to wise up on energy policy and other pressing issues. Let's hope that the end of the present silly season is only just over a week away, and that a prolonged political impairment does not prelude something even worse.

THE NATURE OF CHERNOBYL'S LEGACY

2011-04-21T15:19:00.005+01:00

The 31st March 2011 edition of the science magazine Nature has an article on "Chernobyl's legacy" to co-incide with a major conference on nuclear safety being held this week in Kiev. The article notes that "the quarter-century of work following the Chernobyl disaster will offer some important lessons for Japan as the nation begins to assess the health and environmental consequences of Fukushima".

Since the article was published the scale of the Fukushima nuclear disaster has worsened and is now graded 7 like Chernobyl.

Rather grimly, the Nature article suggests that the ongoing Chernobyl clean-up, forecast to finish in 2065, may be a financial beneficiary of the renewed global interest in nuclear safety following the accident in Japan. For at the core of Chernobyl's legacy is a massively expensive decontamination exercise which is programmed to last for eighty years, and one of the key goals of this week's conference is to "secure more cash from international donors".

The article also draws attention to the "value of accurate information" and its communication during the initial phases of a nuclear disaster and through subsequent years. This requires resources other than funding, although the latter is key to the decommissioning process. Twenty five years after the Chernobyl explosion, the health and wider environmental implications of this are still not fully understood.

Although, as the article notes: "Today, hundreds of farms in Wales still have their sheep tested for Chernobyl radiation before herds can be moved or sold". No wonder countries in the Far East and Pacific region are concerned about the impact of Fukushima, both in the short and longer terms, and are putting pressure on Japanese authorities to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information about the disaster.

However, the greatest impact will obviously be on communities nearby. One of the scientists interviewed for the Nature article says that: "Ultimately...Chernobyl's most important lesson for Fukushima is that a nuclear accident haunts a region long after the reactors have cooled....and the government may have to maintain an exclusion zone for decades".

These themes are taken up in my most recent post at my "shadow blog" - http://the-edge-of-town.blogspot.com/

TREASURE ISLANDS AND LITERARY HAVENS

2011-04-20T16:20:00.005+01:00

Having recently confessed to being a Saturday reader of The Daily Mail, I realise that some may interpret this as my having a "No-Brow" tendency. Fear not, my brows are nearly as bushy as those of former Labour Chancellor Dennis Healey, and I aspire to the Mid-High Brow in my general reading: currently Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Idiot", Nicholas Shaxson's "Treasure Islands", a book of which Lord Healey would surely approve, and "Nature" (see above). Moreover last weekend, I broke the recent habit and purchased the Financial Times once again.

Like the Mail, the FT has joined the debate about the future of Britain's public libraries - from one of which I've loaned "Treasure Islands and also photocopied a Nature article. Columnist Christopher Caldwell predicts their demise: "It is the fate of libraries to die"...because..."The government must focus on necessities and cut frills".

However, set in the context of Shaxson's analysis of "Treasure Islands" or tax havens, at the heart of which are the United Kingdom and the United States, the literary haven of the British, or American, public library seems a curious candidate for the death sentence. For it is precisely this type of institution that provides the citizen with the intellectual resources to adopt a more critical attitude to current affairs, of the kind promoted by the FT, including how governments should regulate and spend money, and otherwise safeguard the public interest.

Thames Cable Car: A River Crossing Re-Imagined

2011-04-19T10:00:00.008+01:00

Above Image - Cologne Cable Car (Wikipedia Media Commons)

Yesterday's announcement that Transport for London is to fund a cable car crossing of the River Thames between the Greenwich Peninsula and Docklands in readiness - hopefully - for the 2012 Olympics is an interesting development in the history of plans for East London river crossings.

Proposals for cable car projects in the London Thames Gateway go back many years - I can remember schemes put forward in the late 1980s - but next year's Olympic Games seem to the final catalyst to implementation.

The need for improved access in the transport corridor served by the Blackwall Tunnel has long been recognised, but additional road capacity has been opposed for environmental reasons, not least increased air pollution.

Transport for London's support for an aerial passenger crossing should, therefore, be viewed as a progressive development in moving people around the capital, although it is still questionable whether the full potential of the Thames itself has yet been re-harnessed.

THE MAILSTROM OF MODERN BRITAIN

2011-04-09T15:31:00.008+01:00

I have to confess to being a reader of the Saturday edition of The Daily Mail newspaper, and that my days as a weekend Guardianista are long gone. There is something about the indignation of the Mail which appeals to middle age. I'm sure that other forty something plus women will know what I mean. The Saturday edition does, however, usually last me until the following weekend, whilst I now catch up with other news online.

Today's Mail is the usual maelstrom of indignation, and perhaps surpasses itself on the subjects of culture, in particular with regard to the Arts Council and new media in the form of Google. The latter American import is singled out partly because of its close links with the office of the Prime Minster, and the Arts Council because of chair Dame Liz Forgan's fall-out with the Mail's Quentin Letts, himself a cultural aficionado. In short, Google and the Arts Council are respectively regarded as threats to British culture, in the form of contemporary creative industries and national heritage, but for very different reasons.

The article on Google is accompanied by a picture of the British singer Adele, whose music has recently exceeded that of Madonna and Bob Dylan in popularity (ie sales), and who was featured on last week's BBC Radio 4 "Profile" programme. Google's search engines are demonised for promoting pirated downloads of Adele's music. The Arts Council, on the other hand, is blamed for promoting multi-culturalism through encouraging better representation of ethnic minorities in the management of cultural institutions.

My own view of the Adele phenomenon is that this is a manifestation of "The X Factor" generation - or Generation X Factor perhaps - in both the UK and the US, where she is even more successful. An anti-American attack on Google, therefore, seems rather out of place. In recent surveys Google comes out as the most trusted global brand, ahead of all other media organisations. Rupert Murdoch, please take note ! The reason for this is, quite simply, that Google provides choice. Some of its choices may be crass, offensive and even illegal, but the ability to choose is what the modern punter wants, including, I imagine, most Daily Mail readers, the majority of whom will also subscribe to the Google preference.

The Prime Minister's desire to foster links with Google, therefore, seems entirely reasonable. "Brand Britain" is after all looking rather jaded, but for reasons that go beyond the arts and media dimensions of culture. Nevertheless, media and the arts are important dimensions of the national psyche, which is certainly in a state of confusion about issues such as multi-culturalism and the vexed subject of political correctness. Part of this confusion arises from the mix-up of multi-culturalism, with an emphasis on diversity and equal opportunities, with political correctness, which is now widely used as a form of explicit or implicit censorship. To their credit, new media organisations like Google have enabled this important difference to be clarified through the blogosphere.

As people of privileged position, both Quentin Letts and Dame Liz Forgan, previously a senior BBC executive, do not have need of new media channels to conduct their cultural conflict. Personally, I have sympathy for both positions: Forgan for standing up for unfashionable multi-culturalism and equal opportunities, and Letts for challenging the culture of political correctness which is like a canker at the heart of many British institutions. A more open and truculent public debate about what culture merits government funding and what should be left "to the market" is certainly needed, the more important question is just how this might happen.

Big Four Complacent...Along With House Of Lords

2011-03-31T14:25:00.015+01:00

A House of Lords report has labelled the "Big Four" accountancy groups as complacent in their failure to identify the corporate failings which contributed to the banking crisis. This charge is not new and was explained at the time by the firms in question as due to the retrospective nature of an audit process that is not designed to predict the future. The same firms are, however, also heavily involved in economic and financial forecasting for clients through their management consultancy divisions. The fact is that they had - as strategy firm Mckinsey, with no accountancy practice, have acknowledged - bought into the "financial deepening" of an ever more complex banking system so completely that "no more boom and bust", to quote former Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, was the economic doctrine of the day.

The fact that this doctrine went widely unquestioned by "corporate insiders" should come as no surprise, as illustrated in the fate of a former HBOS financial director who was forced out of post when he started to raise difficult questions well before the banking crisis began. Deep thinking, in my experience, is rarely regarded as a core competency for progression up the corporate ladder. Although there are exceptions to the rule, the culture of most large, and many smaller, organisations - private, public and even non-governmental - tends to favour compliant people who swim with the tide of current thinking. For not to adopt this approach runs the clear risk of losing one's job, promotion or, in the case of audit firms and consultancies, like-thinking clients such as key financial service and government accounts.

Given that the House of Lords is packed with these corporate insiders - and in the interests of editorial balance after my previous post on Nimbyism - I'm inclined to come to the defence of the large audit firms which it has chosen to criticise. I did many years ago also enjoy the employment of one myself, until it was pointed our to me that I was not suitable material for progression up the corporate ladder: a judgement with which I had to agree. Business services, like banking and the legal profession is, after all, a sector for which Britain is internationally renowned and an important contributor to UK plc. The sector attracts many intellectually talented, emotionally intelligent and socially well-adjusted people of the kind who make stimulating and congenial colleagues, whose achievements are regularly recognised in the honours system, and sometimes through elevation to "the other place".

In Defence Of NIMBYISM At Home And Abroad

2011-03-29T15:37:00.011+01:00

I have noticed that the Coalition Government's C3OH2 (Cameron, Clegg, Cable, Osborne, Hammond and Huhne) have started to rail against so-called NIMBYS (Not-In-My-Back-Yarders) as if these constituted some new threat to national security, so today I want to defend Nimbys at home and abroad today.

Let me start in present day Africa, Kenya to be precise, where, according to BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight programme yesterday, the sustainable livelihoods of tribes people, together with wildlife, are threatened by foreign companies "land grabbing" for the purposes of growing biofuel to help meet the European Union's targets for the use of renewal energy. Some Kenyans have taken objection to this because of the threat that large scale biofuel crops pose both to biodiversity conservation as well as the use of land for growing food. As European targets for renewal energy consumption are clearly a good thing, these Kenyans must be Nimbys standing in the way of progress in the form of green energy. Or might their objections stand up to scrutiny ? There are undoubtedly other ways in which Europe can meet its renewable energy requirements, and such an availability of alternative options often lies at the heart of objections to development which are put down to so-called Nimbyism.

Moving back to Britain - from Australia as it happened - in the mid-1980s, I found myself involved in a planning inquiry into proposals by the Department of Transport to build a new road link across the Thames from the Docklands area to South East London: the never-built East London River Crossing. This scheme would have demolished hundreds of residential and commercial properties, and consumed a large amount of open land south of the river including the famous Oxleas Wood, but the future development of London Docklands depended upon it, or so supporters said. Opponents were cast as Nimbys and, indeed, Luddites, for suggesting that the transport needs of what was later to become known as London Thames Gateway would be better met by strategic rail investment, and - pre-crossrail - an extension of the tube, yet they were proved correct.

The truth is that so-called Nimbys are often right to oppose development, as history will later demonstrate. They frequently have the long term interests of their areas and communities at heart in ways which politicians, technocrats and administrators rarely do. Moreover, some of the most effective Nimby's have a background in precisely those professions most aligned with the apparent march of progress, but "having seen the light" choose to use their talents for the greater good of preventing unsustainable development at home and abroad.

Ford Focus Budget Delivers Some Cold Comfort

2011-03-26T10:10:00.010Z

When the significance of "Motorway Man" was identified by a Conservative MP before the last General Election, I took this to mean that, Coalition or not, the next government was unlikely to be the "greenest ever". So last week's so-called "Ford Focus Budget", and the accompanying "Plan for Growth", despite use of the "plan" word, came as no real surprise.

Nevertheless, this Budget was not all bad. The re-creation of "Enterprise Zones" is to be broadly welcomed as a means of promoting the unrealised economic opportunities of industrial areas with a plentiful supply of brownfield developments sites.

The wider question, however, is whether the UK Coalition Government really understands the international economic and environmental context and the future shocks this may deliver over, say, a twenty year period. My sense is that there are some significant gaps in government intelligence, but I take cold comfort from an unlikely source, the latest report from the McKinsey Global Institute entitled "Urban World: Mapping the economic power of cities", for reasons I shall shortly explain on my other blog @ http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/

Picture: my transport during the cold spell which caused so much chaos earlier in the year.

Libya - A Case for Muscular Multilateralism

2011-03-19T16:47:00.005Z

The decision by the United Nations Security Council to support a no-fly zone over Libya, and thereby lend the assistance of the international community to those Libyans in the east of the country fighting against the forces of Colonel Gadhafi*, has revealed some unlikely hawks and doves. As someone who has styled himself as much an African** as Arab leader in recent years, Gadhafi has bought the support of African mercenaries in an attempt to quash opposition to his regime. Meanwhile, Arab countries, along with France and Britain, have successfully sought a UN resolution to intervene in the conflict. Although the shadows of our involvement in Afghanistan, and, particularly in Iraq, hang over this latest intervention, the situation in fact bears more resemblance to that of the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. In short, there is a moral imperative to intervene, as reflected in discussions at today's summit in Paris, notwithstanding the serious consequences that this may bring.

* Associated Press spelling
** The African Union's response to the Libyan crisis must be reported in the British media.

A New Muscular Multi-Culturalism Is Needed Now

2011-03-18T15:05:00.004Z

Multi-culturalism, like slow growth, is out of favour in Britain. Although Germany seems to have thrived on slow growth, its Chancellor, and new iron lady, Angela Merkel, has also been critical of multi-culturalism. Indeed, it seems to have been Merkel's recent comments that have prompted David Cameron's invocation of a new muscular liberalism, whereby Britain's core values are to be set out to its citizens and other residents. Yet the challenge to such values hardly comes from the post-war multi-cultural legacy. Rather it is the apparent monoculturalism of certain representations of Islam that have challenged the pluralism and tolerance which the British have generally espoused.

Interviewed earlier this week on BBC Radio 4's "Thinking Aloud" programme, Professor Stuart Hall of the Open University, and formerly head of cultural studies at the University of Birmingham, responded to the current debate about multi-culturalism with a muscular intellect for such matters which those on the right, and, arguably, even on the centre, of British politics seem unable to muster. With a Caribbean and colonial heritage, Hall described the changes which have occurred in Britain since his arrival in 1951; also noting that his education in the West Indies enabled him to recognise our native trees.

The fact that many indigenous Britain's, let alone migrants, struggle with such a task today is a reflection more of the decline in this country's general standards of education in the intervening period than the fault of multi-culturalism. Although there is a strong tendency amongst politicians, and other commentators, particularly on the right, to confuse these two issues. In fact, multi-culturalism tends to be invoked as the "bete noire" of all sorts of problems which have beset British society since the 1950s, including rising levels of family breakdown and crime, nothwithstanding that, judged proportionately, these were just as great in the past.

However, it is the overall growth in the population of this country in the intervening period, and more especially increasing population growth elsewhere in the world, which does pose a real and major challenge. A new muscular multi-cultural response to this situation is required, which recognises the strengths of different national heritages and social groups, because these must be harnessed to tackle present and future problems, particularly those arising from environmental change and economic uncertainty. In this context, muscular liberalism, I would suggest, resonates too much with the laissez-faire international outlook which has contributed most to the crises in which global capitalism now finds itself.

Japanese Earthquake - Jesus Out To Sea ?

2011-03-14T15:39:00.011Z

The rescue of a Japanese man swept out to sea on the roof of his house recalls the title short story of a collection by the US writer James Lee Burke, "Jesus Out To Sea", in which a similar fate befalls some citizens of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In a disaster situation greater in magnitude than even those tragic events which have befallen the Gulf of Mexico in recent years, much is currently being made of Japan's orderly and courageous response to the largest earthquake in its history and the accompanying tsunami.

The country's Shinto religion bears some similarity to James Lovelock's Gaia Theory, with the forces of nature regarded as deities capable of wreaking utmost havoc on human society. It is curious, therefore, that both these should lend support to the development of nuclear power.

For few technologies would seem less compatible with major disruption in the earth's crust than nuclear, yet it is precisely country's prone to these, such Japan and Iran, which have raced to develop their capacity, when renewable options like solar and sea power are readily available.

Indeed, Japan would surely have been far better to have deployed the country's undoubted technological brilliance in harnessing wind and wave power. Instead the sea is now being used to appease nuclear reactors which have "gone critical"*

Although it may seem uncompassionate, and even unchristian, to raise these issues at the present time, events in Japan must inform the current escalation in nuclear power, which, sadly, many so-called environmentalists have chosen to endorse.

Nuclear power is not an appropriate technology, although along with coal, oil and gas it has to be regarded as a transitional one: and the sooner the world makes a transition out of these unsustainable technologies the better.

Compassion for the Japanese from the world's peoples is certainly called for at the present time, but so is compassion for the environment. This is not compatible with nuclear proliferation, particularly in a climate change scenario with increased tectonic activity.

*Going Critical is the title of a book on nuclear power by Walt Patterson

Reflections On The Revolutions Near Europe

2011-02-25T10:49:00.007Z

As David Cameron returns to Britain from his travels in the Middle East, perhaps he has reflected on the recent revolutions near Europe as manifestations of "The Big Society" in action. For events in North Africa and elsewhere seem to reflect the aspirations of citizens to replace "Big Man" politics and corrupt government bureaucracies, long supported by countries like our own, with something akin to the kind of democratic government enjoyed in most of Europe.

In some respects, these revolutions also read like a sequel to Christopher Caldwell's well-written and thought provoking book "Reflections on the revolution in Europe" which gives an account of immigration into countries such as Britain, France and Germany following World War 2. The book proposes that a European Islamic revolution is already underway and poses a threat to the cultural values of the West: a view which, needless to say, is widely challenged.

My own view is that the course of history in "Greater Europe" - extending to North Africa, the Near East and Russia - as I shall call it, is certainly at something of a watershed. Indeed, water will be one of its key resource issues, but I am less concerned with the role of Islam than with the wider economic and environmental challenges, as well as opportunities, posed by population and resource factors.

These economic and environmental challenges now need to be firmly grasped not only by political leaders and governments throughout Greater Europe, but also by "Big Society" - to use Mr Cameron's touchstone - movements within countries and across the region. The alternative scenario is likely to be more akin to that which preceded the Second World War, rather than the one which emerges in Christopher Caldwell's "Reflections".

To conclude, if the "Booming Noughties" resembled the "Roaring Twenties", the next decade may have more in common with the 1930s. This situation calls for a very different kind of politics, particularly in Greater Europe. It also calls for a very different kind of media coverage, particularly from organisations like the BBC, whose reporting of European issues has been lamentably weak and Anglo-centric in recent years*.

*Postscript March 14 - The appointment of Chris Patten as chairman of the BBC Trust might help tackle this problem.

HOWEVER, THIS LADY IS NOT FOR TURNING... !

2011-02-24T14:57:00.007Z

I just love this 1920s photograph of a young girl riding an alligator, first sighted yesterday on the cover of an album called "Different Gear, Still Speeding" by the group "Beady Eye" led by Liam Gallagher, formerly of the 1990s "Brit Band" Oasis.

PUBLIC FORESTS: THE LADY IS FOR TURNING

2011-02-18T16:25:00.007Z

"You turn if you want to, the lady's not for turning" was former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's famous pronouncement on the subject of government U-turns.

Yesterday, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman made a rather spectacular U-turn on the proposed sale of publicly-owned woodlands, following a national campaign whose celebrity supporters included editor of "The Lady" - and sister of Boris - Rachel Johnson.

IMF AND IMPORTANCE OF CONTRARIAN VIEWS

2011-02-11T12:09:00.004Z

"IMF admits wilting under Brown Treasury" is the title of an article in today's Financial Times. The Fund's independent watchdog has drawn attention to the UK Treasury's pressuring of IMF officials to tone down adverse interpretations of Britain's economic and financial data and regulation in the run-up to the banking crisis, during Gordon Brown's tenure as chancellor and when Ed Balls "was a key figure". Now there's a surprise !

The watchdog's report concludes, according to the FT, that "in future the Fund should seek contrarian views and be less concerned about crying wolf".

This is an important message not just for the IMF, but for many other institutions in this country and elsewhere. The rise of "The Monstrous Regiment of Yes-People" was one of the defining features of corporate culture - private and public - during 2000s decade. Contrarian voices were generally ostracised, or belittled. Hopefully, this "Yes-People Culture" is now in decline, but I'd advise a cautionary approach to any news of its demise. Watch this space !

HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM !

2011-01-26T10:53:00.007Z

This message comes not from a space, or rather not from space as Houston might have once understood this, but from built space on the ground. In short, Houston has too much new space, although in fact this is not a new problem. Th city has always had a tremendously speculative property market, and it has not been unusual for large amounts of commercial space to lie empty. However, the sheer volume of speculative real estate development in recent years, combined with the sub-prime crisis, whose aftershocks are still reverberating around the United States, has created unprecedented difficulties for home owners. To mix metaphors even more, many of these properties are "under water", a North American term for negative equity, and citizens around the country are having to get to grips with this, the ongoing problem of mortgage foreclosures and associated debts. The title of this post comes from a briefing for people in the Texas city of Houston who are thus afflicted.

The situation in the UK is different because speculative real estate development is regulated through a planning system which just about survived the previous administration and may, or may not, fare better with the present one. The appointment of Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor last week is a timely reminder that had his good wife Yvette Cooper, Housing Minister for several years under New Labour, had her way the situation over here might be more akin to the US, Ireland and Spain. For what Balls means by "growth", and we shall be hearing a great deal more from him on the subject, is an over-developed construction and and real estate sector, notably in the form of speculative house-building on green field sites. This is precisely the kind of growth the United States experienced during the so-called boom years. Meanwhile, the managed decline of former industrial cities was encouraged, a policy which New Labour also embarked upon with the disastrous "Pathfinder Programme", now fortunately abolished by the Coalition Government. The last thing this country needs is US-style planning !

Postscript: "A Man in Full" by the American writer Tom Wolfe remains, in my view, one of the best accounts of the property cycle in the United States. Without wishing to divulge details of the novel's plot, I would also add that the hero's "journey" in one key respect resembles Tony Blair's.

NOUGHT SO QUEER AS FOREIGN FOLK

2011-01-23T19:53:00.003Z

There’s a saying in the North of England “Nowt sae queer as folk” or “Nothing so strange as people”, which I’ll expand to “Nought so queer as foreign folk”.

Britain is generally regarded as one of the most open countries in the world, particularly as regards foreign ownership of British companies and other strategic assets. Thus in many respects we are a multinational country, perhaps to the extent that it is questionable whether our elected Government actually runs things, or an oligarchy of international business and financial interests does.

The Murdoch media empire is one such group of interests, and many will support the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills’ reluctance to concede further control of UK television to this, although he no longer has a say in the matter. However, it is the conduct of the group’s newspapers, notably the News of the World, which raises most questions, particularly as regards mobile phone hacking.

I have to say, however, that when news emerged earlier today that former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has contacted the Metropolitan Police about his phone being hacked, it was not immediately clear who the suspected culprit was, and whether the News of the World, the police themselves or even the security services might be the source of the intrusion.

It does now seem that Murdoch’s men – and quite possibly women – are the prime suspects in this matter, and perhaps, therefore, BSkyB should be renamed BSpyB, although it is apparently rogue News of the World reporters who are actually in the frame. Gordon Brown is also one a number of diverse public figures who have reportedly fallen victim to such phone hacking.

The resignation of the current Prime Minister’s Director of Communications and former News of the World Editor, Andy Coulson, last Friday cannot be regarded as pure coincidence it would seem.

Nevertheless, the more important story, it seems to me, is just how the media became the story, and why press pranks have so distorted coverage of current affairs at home and abroad across the British broadcasting sector, including the BBC, that important news is often side-lined. Clearly the culture of “Spin Doctoring” which took hold during New Labour lies at the heart of the problem.

“What goes around comes around” is a lesson which politicians need to learn. Hopefully, former Prime Minister Brown now understands this, and his successor Mr Cameron does too.

The present Coalition Government would also do well to regulate relations with some foreign powers, including the Murdoch Empire, and to secure more balanced media coverage of these.

UNCLOSETING BRITAIN'S QUEER POLITICS

2011-01-22T14:36:00.002Z

Has the word “Bisexual” been banned by the BBC?

This question was raised by Britain’s former ambassador to the United States, Sir Christopher Meyer, whilst being interviewed on Radio 4’s Today Programme a few weeks ago. The subject was Russian spies, and Sir Christopher disclosed that both female and male Russian agents had been sent to tempt him during his days as a diplomat. During this disclosure, the word “bi-sexual” came out and Sir Christopher asked if he could say that on the BBC. The interviewer sounded uncertain.

I mention this matter partly because of its relevance to the topical issue of British undercover police agents having affairs with, and sometimes even marrying, the people on whom their spying. The subject of bisexuality – although the word itself was not mentioned - also came up again on the Today Programme only this week when it was disclosed that Energy Secretary Chris Huhne’s new partner was previously in a lesbian relationship.

The fact is, of course, that the heterosexual/homosexual, or straight/gay if you prefer, dichotomy does not really exist. Many people find themselves somewhere between the two. However, the majority of these choose to repress their bisexuality because at the present time this is a social taboo area, as reflected in its more or less unmentionable status, outside sensationalist soaps, on Britain’s national public broadcasting network.

Nevertheless, much of the rest of the world still regards the British as a pretty queer lot, and for good reason, in my view. Social silence, to use an anthropological term, on the subject of bisexuality seems to me to reflect a much deeper discomfort with any kind of conceptual challenge where ambiguity plays an important role. In short, we British like simple ideas, and, to compensate psychologically for this – yes I do subscribe to some Freudian thinking – we go in for administrative complexity in a big way.

The BBC itself is a very good example of this, and so are the majority of our other national institutions. Many of these enjoyed what can only be described as a “golden age of administrative complexity” under the previous government, and the prime mover in all this was indeed the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, although Gordon Brown did his utmost equal his predecessor. Blair, I would suggest, is the archetypal repressed British queer, and Brown the lesser sort.

After all, what men in their right mind could have been seduced by their own Spin Doctors? This is why, yesterday, I expressed my gratitude for the resignation of Andy Coulson, whose presence at No 10 certainly set me wondering about David Cameron, especially with his public school boy background. Was this bit of rough to be our new Prime Minister’s undoing? The relationship with Deputy Nick Clegg is a different matter, because Coalition Government, if not yet politically endorsing bisexuality, has certainly brought Britain’s queer politics out of the closet.

THE NEW SECRET POLICEMAN'S BALLS ? *

2011-01-21T20:12:00.004Z

Before returning to the subject of Ed Balls' appointment as Shadow Chancellor, I would like to express gratitude for the resignation of Andy Coulson, the Prime Minister’s outgoing Head of Communications. However, on a day when Tony Blair made a further appearance at the Iraq Inquiry, I do wonder why the Coulson story has received so much media attention.

Alan Johnson’s resignation yesterday, we have subsequently learnt, appears to be the consequence of his wife having an affair with a police protection officer, or rather the forthcoming appearance of this story in the media. But is all as it appears?

This blog generally supports the cock-up theory of events rather than the conspiratorial one, although in the case of Alan Johnson’s resignation perhaps both theories are equally applicable. So let me give a little spin of my own to this story.

The present Government is presently engaged in cutting back the state, including the police state. Chief Constables and other senior officers may lose their jobs. There will be less money available for undercover surveillance operations of the kind instigated during the New Labour regime.

Then someone has a bright idea: “What we need is Ed “Big Spender” Balls in the role of Shadow Chancellor”. So the story of Mrs Alan Johnson’s liaison with a protection officer, apparently going back to the days when her husband was Home Secretary, conveniently comes out in the media. Gotcha!

* The original Secret Policeman's Balls were events in support of Amnesty International

BALLS MAY RAISE THE POLITICAL GAME BUT...

2011-01-20T17:17:00.006Z

Readers of my blog will know that I'm not a fan of Ed Balls, and had supported the appointment of Alan Johnson as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. However, few would deny that Johnson's performance in this role has been poor. Moreover, the current public inquiry into the disastrous management of a Staffordshire hospital whilst Johnson was Secretary of State for Health has also revealed the weakness of "Corporal Johnson"*, as one Midlands Labour councillor called him after the local government elections in 2009.

Nevertheless, whilst Johnson's replacement by Ed Balls may raise the Labour Party's game in the short-term, it must be remembered that his record in office is no better than that of his colleague. Indeed, Balls is regarded as one of the architects of New Labour's highly flawed economic policies. Former Chancellor Alistair Darling also seems to have regarded him as a bullying thug. Balls' main strength seems to lie in the fact that as a former journalist the media can relate to him, but that is no recommendation.

* Recalling Corporal Jones in Dad's Army and his words of "Don't Panic, Dont Panic !" whilst doing precisely that.

CLIMATE CHANGE FOR ENERGY ISSUES

2011-01-19T17:33:00.005Z

As he took up the role of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the Liberal-Democrat Chris Huhne also took up with a new partner, and is recently divorced from his wife. So BP has taken up with the Kremlin, now set to become the company's largest shareholder, in a move which has upset its previous major partner, the US.

Meanwhile, it turns out that whilst Britain has been taken up with Russian spies, the previous government, via the Association of Chief Police Officers, had been funding under-cover agents to spy on climate change activists. One of these has now changed sides and given evidence in support of his former green comrades.

The political climate it seems - and not just the weather - is increasingly difficult to predict.

JOURNEY WILL BE SUBJECT TO DELAYS

2011-01-13T15:56:00.010Z

As someone who hasn't read Fitzroy Maclean's "Eastern Approaches", but heard an interesting account of the man and his work over the Christmas period, I have to inform readers that my journey is likely to be rather less exciting, and will inevitably be subject to delay. However, the opening of Maclean's journey and the start of my own virtual progress in 2011 share the same mode of travel: the railways. But whilst his account begins with a sense of excitement as he departs from Paris destined for Moscow, my first proper posting of the New Year begins rather closer to home: the Conservative Home website in fact, and the subject of the Government's new Regional Growth Fund and strategic rail investment between London and the North of England. Please see http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com Like many rail journeys in this country I anticipate that this one will be subject to delays.

2011 - MY YEAR FOR NEW INTERNATIONALISM

2011-01-01T15:01:00.004Z

As someone who's yet to warm to the the UK Coalition Government's New Localism agenda, I'm making 2011 a year for New Internationalism. Yes, I've resolved to revisit the "Eastern Approaches" of former Soviet Europe, and perhaps some even more distant places.

RUSSIA: A NOT SO SIMPLES STORY

2010-12-28T16:52:00.005Z

"Justice of the Rus" by Ivan Bilibin - Wikipedia Media Commons

I was surprised by former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind's simplistic picture of "The Rule of Law" - or not, as the case may be - in Russia and China yesterday. Rifkind compared Russia unfavourably to China in the context of this week's judgement in Moscow on Mikhail Khodorkovsky, when the treatment of the 2010 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiabo, surely suggests that the governments of both countries are equally unwilling to accept political dissent and prepared to imprison those who challenge the system. Moreover, as Russia's onetime richest oligarch, Khodorkovsky's business conduct does seem open to question, whereas Liu Xiabo's only crime has been to question the conduct of the state.

Rifkind's unfavourable portrait of the Russian legal system may also have something to do with his own professional connections. Some may remember an excellent Channel 4 Dispatches programme on 30 November 2009 which "examines the relationships between Russia's richest men and Britain's political elite." This was a fine piece of investigative journalism which showed just how much British politicians are, to put it bluntly, "in the pocket" of Russian businessmen, and particularly those who have made a home in "Londongrad". My own impression is that unlike "The Life and Times of Alexandr Orlov"*, Russian politics are "a not so simples story", notwithstanding their presentation as such by Western politicians and media.

* A Simples Life

Is the Russian Prime Minister a Red Tory ?

2010-12-24T16:44:00.010Z

Feeling somewhat fatigued with British politics just now, I'm going to take the opportunity of "The Festive Break" to speculate on the political bigger picture. This one shows Russian Prime Minister, when President, Vladimir Putin in conversation with Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State during the US Presidency of George Bush, and former Soviet specialist.

The term "Red Tory" has been popularised of late by the political thinker and Anglican theologian Phillip Blond; although the concept appears to be of North American origin, where it has been used to distinguish Canadian Conservatives of more humble origins and affiliations from "Blue Tories" belonging to the political establishment.

It is interesting, therefore, that Vladimir Putin should have distinguished himself politically from the current Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, by using the term "conservative", whilst the latter has described himself as a liberal. In a comparison that might also apply to the British Prime Minister and his Deputy, according to WikiLeaks the US view is that Medvedev "plays Robin to Putin's Batman".

So is Putin a Red Tory ? His origins are certainly humble, as were those of his political predecessor Boris Yeltsin: another Red Tory perhaps ? Putin has also sought to distance himself from wealthy Russian oligarchs, although not when they play a helpful role in supporting Russia's successful bid to host the 2018 Football World Cup. It is noteworthy that Putin's speech (in English) on this occasion highlighted the role of "The Great Game " in "The Big Society".

In short, it was a speech that could have been delivered by our own Prime Minister, had the old "Blue Toryism" represented by himself, Prince William and London Mayor Boris Johnson won the day, which it very much didn't. So my advice to David Cameron and his colleagues is to be more circumspect about these "Red Tories". After all, the days of "Reds under the beds" seem to be here again, if they ever left these shores at all.

Moreover, I suspect that all this talk of "Red Tories" may have contributed to the bout of Siberian weather to which Britain has recently succumbed. After all, didn't President Putin arrange for the clouds to be dispersed from above Saint Petersburg on the occasion of a concert for international dignitaries some years ago, and might not the same technology now be used inflict freezing conditions on Western Europe ?

Or perhaps not, so my advice to our own Batman and Robin (Aka David Cameron and Nick Clegg) is to have fewer "big ideas" and concentrate on good basic governance and government for this country. This means paying rather less heed to the Think Tanks - bane of the previous New Labour administration - and rather more to common sense principles and practice.

I would also suggest that Secretaries of State, even ones as musically accomplished as Condoleezza Rice, and particularly those due to appear on "Strictly Come Dancing", should avoid manoeuvres of the kind likely to offend the powerful media oligarchs who many believe actually run this country, notwithstanding heritage politics of the kind espoused by Phillip Blond.

As to whether the Russian Prime Minister is a "Red Tory", I'm rather more concerned about the "Putinisation" of British politics. By this I mean a continuation of the cronyism and institutionalised corruption that took root during the Blair premiership, combined with the erosion of civil liberties linked to Britain's "Special Relationship" with the United States during the Bush Presidency.

If my reflections seem rather unseasonable, I'd suggest that others might also like to take the opportunity of this White Christmas and further forecasts of snow on Boxing Day, with their accompanying travel restrictions, to think outside the media-controlled box of British politics for a change. Something worthwhile might come of it. Tidings of Comfort and Joy for now !

SNOW, GLORIOUS SNOW !

2010-12-18T14:20:00.006Z

Like most other people, I've been seriously inconvenienced by the Big Freeze of recent weeks, made worse by ill health during the same period. Yet before this becomes a mini misery memoir, let me also say how much I enjoy snow, especially as I haven't enjoyed a holiday to foreign cold (or hot) climes for ten years. Just thought I'd get that one in! Yes, the past decade has forced the English weather on me as never before, and because of recent sickness I'm reminded of the quote, possibly from Anthony Trollope, that, for the English person: "Everything depends upon the weather and the state of one's digestion" (my other problem incidentally).

Somewhere in the middle of this exile in England, I started a "blog" at the BBCI's H2O2 site under the pseudonym, Janet Jung. However, it was not until some 2 years later in 2006, when I began blogging under my real name, that the posts started to flow. Nevertheless, the theme of that first blog, the strange hysterias gripping Britain, and England in particular, during the New Labour years, seems as relevant now as then. For we continue to be a nation apparently gripped by one hysteria after another, notably the consequences of apparent extremes of weather - cold, wet, hot, dry - and lifestyle maladies such as obesity. This issue of obesity springs to mind because the West Midlands, in which I currently live, is apparently the most obese place in Europe, with some 30% of people so categorised, although how and by whom I'm not sure.

The link between our current weather problems and an overweight population is transport. I should point out that I have not had access to a car for over 6 years, and if anything, undertake too much exercise through necessity - my local bus service certainly is not running today! - and consequently am more inclined to weight loss than gain. Obviously, my lifestyle is against the grain of a society which is becoming more and more mobile (but not socially) and motor transport dependent, and, therefore, increasingly vulnerable to any climatic or other events which bring roads, in particular, to a stand still. The advent of Internet commerce has also generated considerable additional delivery traffic, and people seem more inclined to spend time with their computers than enjoying the kind of informal outdoor recreation which might help keep them trim.

In this unhealthy state of affairs - and I haven't even touched upon the subject of increasing carbon emissions and their contribution to global climate change - I think we should all be celebrating this year's seasonal snow fall in Britain as Father Christmas's present to the nation, and potential second coming of the less transport dependent and healthier lifestyles of yore. For those who have spent their lives dreaming of a white Christmas - and who has not at some time - now we have one, so let us rejoice! Get out there I say - as I did this morning on a 10 mile walk in the service of animal welfare - and enjoy. Stop moaning and make the most of it ! Oh yes, and if anyone would like to contact me to discuss how the country might make itself more resilient to physical and psychic challenges, they are most welcome to do so.

TACKLING INCONVENIENT POLITICAL TRUTHS

2010-12-15T16:04:00.005Z

I was reminded recently of a speech which Labour leader Ed Miliband made on the occasion of the George Orwell Memorial Prize award in 2006. Miliband's theme is the role of the public intellectual and why this is important.

The latest WikiLeaks revelations show that much of what passes for high level international diplomacy is in fact little more than tittle tattle and dodgy dossiers of the kind freely and widely available in the blogosphere.

Nevertheless, the controversy created by the release of this information and the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on unrelated charges has revealed unlikely apparent support for the organisation's modus operandi.

Could it be that not only some within the media, including people like John Pilger, but also some within and close to the very establishments whose data has been leaked welcome the outing of political "white noise" around which important decisions are taken ?

I think this is certainly the case, and a lot of people outside and inside the system want a higher level of discourse around diplomatic decision-making, including the management of conflict in places like Afghanistan.

George Orwell would certainly have done so, and if the contribution of Ed Miliband to British politics is to re-introduce high quality public intellectual discourse to these - which he has not done yet - the new Labour leader will have made his mark.

THE MORAL AMBIVALENCE OF THE MEDIA

2010-12-06T20:29:00.004Z

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Americana yesterday, the veteran newspaper editor Sir Harold Evans displayed the typical moral ambivalence of the media man. Asked for his views on Wikileaks and founder Julian Assange, Sir Harold retorted: "Infantile Leftism". He went on to express support for the prosecution of Assange for the latest Wikileaks data releases, but would not extend his support for punishment to the newspapers, such as The Guardian, who have published the Wikileaks data.

However, I would suggest that the lastest Wikileaks furore calls for a more complex response from the political and media classes. I'm sure that I'm not alone in wondering what Swedish investigative journalist and author of The Millennium Trilogy, the late great Stieg Larsson, would have made of Julian Assange and Wikileaks, for they could have been his creations. Anyway, I'm sure that Larsson would have had something rather more interesting to say on the subject than Evans, or his wife Tina Brown and creater of The Daily Beast.

BRITAIN'S BIG FREEZE & FIFA'S COLD FEET

2010-12-03T15:00:00.006Z

It's hardly surprising that the Great British Worthiness Troika, aka Davids Cameron and Beckam together with Prince William, failed to impress FIFA. After all, this is an organisation that apparently likes its palms well oiled so selection of the resource-rich, and some might say, democratically poor, countries of Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 Football World Cups seems in character. Having said this, I welcome FIFA's decision, particularly in the case of Russia. After all, the developed world seemed to fall over itself in support of China's hosting of the 2008 Olympics. Moreover, Vladimir Putin does come across as a prime minister with some modicum of common sense, which can't be said for David Cameron who on this particular occasion should have stayed in Britain to attend to the latest Big Freeze. People like John Prescott should be left to deal with organisations like FIFA ! In the meantime, the British media might like to focus on the institutionalised corruption inherent in our planning system, partly a legacy of the Prescott regime, but likely to be re-forced by the policy of cash for planning permissions which the present Government is seeking to implement. Probity starts at home !

THE PICKLE PROJECT

2010-11-23T15:15:00.003Z

After reflecting on "The Pickle We're In", or The Big Society Pickle, and the particular pickle in which New Localism and Eric Pickles find themselves, I discovered this rather wonderful blog called "The Pickle Project": http://pickleproject.blogspot.com Pass the Pickles Please !

SOME ADVICE FOR GETTING OUT OF A PICKLE

2010-11-23T11:40:00.005Z

I have some sympathy for the Prime Minister's former Enterprise Adviser, Lord Young (now 78). The business banking adviser in my local branch of one of the UK major financial institutions expressed similar sentiments to those of the good Lord, to the effect that most people have never had it so good and what's all the fuss about. Indeed, I'm sure that many people, by reason of some insulation from the wider world - wealth, stupidity, some combination of the two, university vice-chancellors, people who run "difficult conversation" workshops for the Cabinet Office etc, etc - feel the same. The question is do we want such people running, or helping to run, the country or advising businesses on their banking. No, but they will continue to do so.

This is precisely why it is important that politicians, business people and bureaucrats are constantly reality-checked, and every citizen should regard this function as a basic duty. So last week I wrote, for the second time, to Bob Neill, the Minister for Local Government and Planning: please see http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/

My letter was prompted by a legal judgement against the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, to the effect that his over-hasty abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) earlier in the year was unlawful. I anticipated this judgement, although - and I'm sure that Mr Pickles would agree with me - the law can be just as much of an ass as anyone else. In fact, Mr Bob Neill may well be right when he describes this judgment against the Secretary of State as a Pyrrhic Victory for house-builders. My legal verdict, which may be as good as that of anyone else, is that whilst the Pickles was "ultra vires" in his abolition of the RSS, the development targets set during the previous administration's revision of these are a matter of government policy, which has now been superseded.

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PRUDENCE

2010-11-17T14:49:00.005Z

Whilst trying to calculate the expenditure by UK Universities on property development and construction projects under the previous government, I came across an interesting paper by the Oxford Professor Avner Offer subtitled "The Political Economy of Prudence 1870-2000". Although the paper didn't deal with the period in which I am most interested, its exploration of the "political competition" between private and public control of services such as housing, health, transport and other infrastructure is instructive, and an addendum for 2000 to the present day would be very welcome. The original paper was published by Nuffield College Oxford in 2002.

In the meantime, the real political economy of prudence, or perhaps the political economy of real prudence, is definitely something worth valuable consideration. This isn't intended as an Irish joke, although, for my money, the mare called Prudence may have already bolted.

UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES - MY POSITION

2010-11-16T10:10:00.007Z

Over the weekend I was greeted by a dog bearing a remarkable resemblance to Kanellos, "The Famous Greek Riot Dog", in the car park of a rural village hall. However, the owner assured me that his hound is a law-abiding British citizen...and so am I. Therefore, I want to clarify my position on university tuition fees.

First of all, the bad guys (and girls) in this case are fat cat British Vice Chancellors and other expensive university suits who have been responsible, along with the previous New Labour Government, for the unsustainable expansion of the further education sector. To put it bluntly, many universities have unaffordable overheads and these have contributed more than anything to the proposed rise in tuition fees.

I do not, however, agree with the proposed rise. Instead, I would suggest that universities need to substantially reduce their overheads through a programme of asset - primarily land and building - disposal and improved management. Cutting administrative costs is also necessary, as well as a re-focusing on their "core business" of education and research. Spin-off enterprises should be precisely that.

Students, and prospective ones, should also bear in mind that the pension entitlements of some of the very staff who accompanied them on their march last week are also a contributory factor in the cash crisis faced by many universities. Extending the retirement age for those in a profession well suited to the older worker would therefore seem a good idea.

I make the above comments as someone who enjoyed a university degree funded by the state - but which didn't create a career path - and who subsequently self-funded a part-time masters degree, whilst working full-time. This led to better paid positions and professional training paid for by employers. I was by then thirty years old and had experienced two major economic recessions.

FURTHER EDUCATION - NOT FOREVER 21

2010-11-13T10:59:00.005Z

Forever 21, yet another "young" high street store opened in Birmingham's Bull Ring yesterday. The city boasts the youngest population in Europe in a region which still claims chronic labour shortages. Nevertheless, the young shoppers, who looked very much like the student marchers of earlier in the week, formed an orderly procession as they waited for their next consumer fix. It was clearly this kind of behaviour that police had anticipated in London.

There was, however, more than one difference between yesterday's queues and the storming of Conservative Party HQ: participants in the London disorder were predominantly white, and - notwithstanding any subsequent claims by the Whitechapel Anarchist Group - likely to be mostly middle class. One can interpret this as either a cascading down of upper class/public school yobbishness, a sort of Bullingdon Club rampage for the masses, or an ascent upwards of the kind of behaviour expected of so-called lower class Chavs.

My perception of the group of people likely to have participated in last Tuesday's disorder, as distinct from those who may have instigated it, is that they came from "Middle England", either earlier in the morning or at the beginning of the university term, with no thought of conducting themselves in the manner that transpired. Indeed their lack of ability to think for themselves made them vulnerable to the kind of pack mentality which subsequently erupted.

This doesn't say much for our post-16 education system, or perhaps it does. For far from encouraging what the Coalition Education Secretary, the Conservative Michael Gove, has called "deep thinking", the British system seems to encourage precisely the opposite. For in reality it is the unsustainable growth of the this system - and of universities in particular - and its especially unaffordable building programmes, which has led to the escalation in costs now reflected in the rising price of further education.

In short, Britain has too many young people in full-time education, particularly at university, and too many foreign students. The main beneficiary of this situation appears to be the retail sector, the ever burgeoning number of high street and online outlets serving the youth market, together with associated media services which market and promote "fast fashion" and cheap consumer goods, including BBC WM who advertised the opening of Birmingham's "Forever 21" yesterday.

So Wise Up Young People, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Retail Chains !

KANELLOS & THE STORMING OF 30 MILLBANK

2010-11-11T10:09:00.005Z

The spirit of Kanellos, the famous "Greek Riot Dog", appeared to have joined yesterday's protests by student and university lecturers against proposals to raise tuition fees.

I'm rather surprised that this wasn't anticipated by classical scholar - albeit more of Rome than Greece - Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London

As a consequence, a truly British farce ensued with the occupation of Conservative Party HQ by protesters, whilst "Military Intelligence" officials in a nearby building locked themselves in.

One can only suppose that "The Dogfather" of London and his advisers presumed that the consumer values of most young Brits cannot produce "good old fashioned" anarchy.

THE CHINA SYNDROME

2010-11-10T10:52:00.003Z

This week's visit to China by the UK Prime Minister and leading members of the Coalition Government has inevitably raised the issue of human rights, and how these should be handled.

However, the issue is much more entangled than some in Britain might wish, for contemporary China is as much a creation of western consumption patterns, including our insatiable appetites for cheap consumer goods, as it is of communist state capitalism.

Moreover, the West's own record on human rights issues, following the US-UK led intervention in Iraq in 2003, is also currently open to question.

The Chinese interpretation of "human rights" is certainly one that would not be widely countenanced in Western democracies. Nevertheless, for the billions of very poor people in the world, China's development model may be preferred to, say, that of India.

Human population management, something which India has largely rejected in recent years, has certainly played a key role in lifting millions of people out of poverty in China.

Yet the present vulnerability of China to those very Western market forces which have enabled its apparent economic miracle in the past 20 years suggest that this achievement remains precarious and perhaps unsustainable.

There is also the more important underlying question of environmental sustainability in the context of Chinese "growth", and whether this may yet trigger a crisis of Gaian magnitude.

What is certainly needed in this context is freedom of expression, but any criticism of China should bear in mind that there are some subjects in Britain and the West which are still very much politically "off-limits", including resource consumption and population management.

ROCKET SCIENCE & THE GOLD STANDARD

2010-11-09T11:28:00.004Z

The World Bank suggestion that a return to "The Gold Standard" should be considered comes at a time when rocket science is undergoing a renaissance: that is real rocket science rather than the kind deployed in recent years by banks, and largely responsible for the global financial crisis. We should also remind ourselves that much of Britain's reserves of gold were sold by "No more boom and bust" Brown when Chancellor of the Exchequer on the advice of his own personal rocket scientist, Ed Balls, when in fact both men were ill-equipped to run the proverbial "p.ss up in a brewery".

BBC: IT'S ALL COMING OUT IN THE WASH !

2010-11-05T11:04:00.006Z

I was actually grateful for the British National Union of Journalists strike (about pensions) this morning, which meant that the BBC Radio 4's prime time "Today" was replaced by an interesting nature programme about "The Wash", a large estuary in the East of England. This comes on a day when former Countryfile presenter Miriam O'Reilly takes the Corporation "to court" for unfair dismissal on the grounds that she had too many wrinkles for high-definition television. Countryfile had a "face lift" a couple of years ago, and number of older presenters had to leave when the programme moved to a prime time slot. When are women in their prime I wonder.

RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY IN UNITED STATES

2010-11-01T11:33:00.010Z

The Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington over the weekend is a reminder of the Roman festival of Saturnalia*. Aimed at overheated political debate and laziness in the media, according to today's Guardian newspaper, we could very much do with a rally over here.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia

REPORTING OF PROPERTY & HOUSING ISSUES

2010-10-28T15:20:00.006+01:00

Whilst my previous post noted that media reporting of economic and labour issues had been in decline since the 1980s, the subjects of property and housing, and particularly the latter, have attracted more and more media attention, sometimes, it seems, to the exclusion of all other news. The present furore over the Government's proposed changes to housing benefit, following an earlier announcement to cut funding to housing associations and expressed desire to phase out social housing illustrate this very well.

In stating my provisional support for social housing, I also want to share my experience of some its problems through recounting a short history of the flat next door to my former London home.
Soon after purchasing this property, the owner "inherited" the tenancy to a nearby council flat into which he then moved, leasing his own flat to the local authority. A range of housing benefit claimants were placed in this property, one of whom, an Irish lady, also had access to another nearby council flat, and so sublet the one bedroom flat next to me to a large family from Nigeria. At various points, I drew the attention of the local authority to what was clearly housing benefit fraud, and they usually acted on the matter. Incidentally, I owned the property in which I lived, although it was suggested to me on more than one occasion that I was a council tenant, possibly because other owners in the block had entered into arrangements similar to my neighbour.

So we come back to another subject which has received much attention in recent years: regulation. It is the regulation - from policy to enforcement - of property and housing which really needs to be tackled by politicians and in the media, so that "issues of the moment", no matter how important, can be objectively considered in a wider context, and people like the Mayor of London do not have to resort to using highly intemperate language.

However, London does indeed have a particular set of housing issues, some of which have been adequately covered elsewhere, so I don't proposed to dwell upon them here. One issue which has not been fully covered in the media relates to my previous post on "labour issues": low wages. London is producing a great many low paid private sector jobs, many of which are directly in highly paid-sectors such as banking, or in services linked to these. Instead, therefore, of paying some of their employees increasingly high amounts, might I suggest that City institutions provide housing for their less well-paid but nevertheless essential workers.

With regard to the very high levels of housing benefit paid to residents in some areas of London, I would also suggest that this is as much a problem of the type of buy-to-let market which has developed in London, as of individual recipients of state support. To put it bluntly, the beneficiaries of large housing benefit payouts are as much, if not more so, the owners of the properties themselves: something the media, once again, has not properly acknowledged.

REPORTING OF ECONOMIC AND LABOUR ISSUES

2010-10-25T12:04:00.009+01:00

Having given vent to "My Inner Yahoo" - a creature of Swiftian satire rather than the new media kind - in my previous post, readers should be warned that I shall be writing in a highly serious vein today. Nevertheless, my critique of Britain's ruling classes - the media, bankers, bureaucrats and politicians et al - will continue.

Last weekend brought media coverage of two symbolically important events, the near demise of "The Work Foundation", due to pensions obligations, and the discovery of Roma children working in the spring onion fields of Worcestershire during a spell of particularly cold autumn weather. The Work Foundation has, as it happens, been rescued by the University of Lancaster, and the young Romanians by the Gangmaster's Licensing Association in conjunction with West Mercia Police.

However, the wider economic and labour context which has thrown these two disparate events into relief has not, and almost certainly will not, receive the receive the media coverage that it merits. The reasons for this are complex: journalism which tackles economic and labour issues in a comprehensive way has been in retreat since the 1980s; people's lifestyles rather than their employment tend to be the focus of media attention; most people are no longer part of an organised labour movement.

Yet there are very good reasons why a more traditional approach to the reporting of economic and labour issues is called for at the present time. For Britain, and England in particular, is not only recovering from a financial crisis induced recession, but also from a period of government under New Labour when is was extremely difficult in matters of the economy, and political economy more specifically, to distinguish facts from fictions, and truth from ideological distortions. Moreover, the British media for much of the decade between 1997-2007 colluded in this process.

Unfortunately, there are strong indications that some within the present Government regard themselves as the "Heir to Blair", and the media management school of political economy as practiced by New Labour but with a somewhat different ideological emphasis, has already sprung back into action. Whether the Secretary of State for Business, Skills and Innovation, and others of a more objective outlook within the Coalition, can steer the nation onto a more broadly-based path to economic regeneration, as distinct from from another financially engineered spurt of growth, remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the media - and indeed the Coalition Government - should pay close attention to "labour issues". Perhaps an analogy with New Labour's attention to matters of property, normally the focus of Conservative policy, is appropriate here, if David Cameron really wants to claim the "Heir to Blair" legacy.

DROP THE DEAD DONKEY

2010-10-22T12:06:00.004+01:00

Checking out two news stories on the Telegraph website yesterday, both on the subject of "drops" - the ongoing drop in house prices and a "surprise drop" in consumer spending - I soon found the "Comments" more interesting than the main articles; and particularly this advice from "Jacqui" quoting "Descartes, Discourses on Method": "Accept nothing as true, unless clearly recognised as such." My sentiments exactly !

The "Discourses" revealed that most people weren't at all surprised by the drop in consumer spending, and nor apparently were "the markets" whom the Financial Times report, quoting one lunching - albeit at his desk these days - stockbroker "only respond to surprises". What does "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" make of these imprudent hussies of today's markets I wonder, when they can't even register a drop in the sales of lingerie ?

Nevertheless, the price of lingerie has undoubtedly come down in recent years, almost certainly an achievement for "The Spender of Last Resort": to quote another commentator called, I think, "Princesschipchops" (surely the pseudonym of a female impersonator !). My guess is that house prices will follow a similar downwards trend, a bit like those pants that barely covers the buttocks, and which the young seem to favour and the middle aged and over to revile.

If some readers wish to deduce from the above account that I think the bottom may yet fall out of the housing market, please feel free to do so. My own guess is that there are some within the present Government who would like to see a further downward adjustment in property prices, and others who would not: a political reflection for once of the position of wider society. In the meantime, "The Old Lady" should surpise the bankers by witholding money from their hussies.

THE PROBLEMS OF KING & PARLIAMENT

2010-10-20T16:38:00.003+01:00

The Governor of the Bank of England's sobering advice of yesterday was blatantly ignored in the unruly behaviour of the UK Parliament today, whose benches sounded as if they had been taken over by a multitude of Swiftian Yahoos when Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson endeavoured to respond to the speech of George Osborne.

My present feeling is that neither the mild-mannered King nor the unruly Parliament are up to the tasks required of them.

The New Spirit Level of the Real Global Economy

2010-10-12T15:46:00.003+01:00

The following article appeared in last Sunday's Telegraph newspaper: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/8057069/Jobless-America-threatens-to-bring-us-all-down-with-it.html

Comments are still coming in - some not very politically correct - and along with the original text make for interesting reading. One respondent wonders where all the money is coming from to prop up the United States economy.

The answer of course lies in the labours of overseas workers, and their financial fruits to foreign governments: notably China, increasingly banker to the US.

This is now "The International State We're In", as indicated in my reprinted post of yesterday.

So if political folks over here are getting excited about a new book called "The Spirit Level" - profiled on BBC Radio 4's Analysis yesterday - might I suggest that they also think about the wider international implications of this book's message concerning the benefits of increasing socio-economic equality.

For I would suggest that "The New Spirit Level of the Real Global Economy" is going to be very challenging indeed for many people in the economies of "The Old West", and that their governments, including our own, need to "get real" in responding to this situation sooner rather than later.

THE ECONOMICS OF FAIRY DUST REVISITED

2010-10-11T16:36:00.010+01:00

The Coalition Government's policy of continued "quantitative easing" reminds me of a post of six month's ago from my alter ego "The Witch of Worcester": @ http://www.witchofworcester.wordpress.com/

"Writing in The Observer last Sunday (11 April 2010), the former newspaper editor Will Hutton bemoaned the lack of any real content in the current British General Election campaign, and the fact that the euphemistically named government policy of "quantitative easing" - ie pumping £billions of public money to prop up the banking sector - was reinforcing structural problems in the UK economy: namely, the dependence of this on the financial and property sectors.

Commentators on the article - including this one - seemed to have found much to agree with. However, I have to take issue with Hutton's assertion that the British have all been living on fairy dust - ie asset price inflation largely constructed on increasingly sophisticated financial systems, which also provided unprecedented levels of consumer credit - for the past 20 years. For there is another dimension to "The State We're In" - also the title of a book by Hutton published around the time of New Labour's election in 1997. The other side of the story is, of course, the hard labour of people in low wage countries, notably - but not exclusively - China which has produced the cheap, but nevertheless high quality, consumer goods of which we in countries like Britain and the United States are so enamoured. I therefore find it strange that Mr Hutton, now identified with the UK-based Work Foundation, should have apparently overlooked the labours of these multitude of overseas workers in his article, given that their production has underpinned, more substantially than the speculators as it turns out, the long boom from early 1990s to the late noughties.

During this time, Britain has been living not so much on fairy dust - attractive although this analogy may be to one concerned with non-material realties - but on the hard labour, and to a significant extent the savings, of people living in less-developed countries. However, I would argue that this process has not delivered the advantages at home or abroad that are frequently advanced. We are all now aware that the kind of growth which the consumer revolution has brought to China poses not only grave environmental problems for the rest of the world, but has also suppressed, and in some cases destroyed, the development of industries in other countries, including our own. Moreover, there are an increasing number of people within China who would like to see their country take a different development path, which is less reliant upon Western consumers, and the economics of fairy dust."

VICTORY FOR MILIBAND VS THE MEDIA

2010-10-09T11:57:00.004+01:00

Congratulations to Ed Miliband and Alan Johnson for foiling the British media's attempt to foist one or other of the Ed Balls-Yvette Cooper husband and wife couple in to the role of Shadow Chancellor, and sending them on their separate ways as shadow spokespersons for Home Affairs and Foreign Policy.

It's great to think that a sense of humour - as well as some common sense - might have been restored to Labour Party politics at long last !

OLD LESSONS OF THE NEW IRISH PROBLEM

2010-10-04T15:49:00.005+01:00

This image from the Wikipedia Media Commons depicts the "Famine" sculpture in front of Dublin's financial centre.

Created at the height of the credit boom, when Dublin was amongst the four richest cities in the world, this artwork now symbolises the "feast to famine" cycle of the modern Irish economy.

For some, last week's Irish Government bailout of the banking sector may recall the country's earlier potato famine, but the lessons are much closer to home.

In short, "The New Irish Problem" - as I'm going to call it - shows the folly of a small country adopting the "growth policies" of a much larger one, namely the United States.

For in Ireland, the problems of an overly large and inadequately regulated financial sector as well as a highly speculative property market - problems which the country shares with the United Kingdom - have been made far worse by a lax planning regime and lending to the construction sector, mixed up with some good old fashioned corruption.

UK Coalition Government and "Next Generation Labour" please take note !

For if the previous administration had succeeded in fully implementing its plans for massive volume house-building, the outcome would almost certainly have been akin to the property market collapses in the US, Ireland and Spain, which followed similar policies.

Looking Beyond Britain's Post "Blair Babe" Politics

2010-09-27T15:23:00.016+01:00

Image: Stylish fifty something Christine Lagarde, French Minister for Economic Affairs.

News this weekend that Brazil is likely to have a sixty something woman President put in to perspective the election of Miliband Junior as UK Leader of the Opposition. It was also a shame that Diane Abbott apparently lost out to the politics of envy over the choice of a private education for her son, just when I thought such "Old Left" hang-ups had lost out to New Labour.

In the run up to the General Election, I lamented the absence of the "Herd Matriarch" in British politics, as distinct from those "Folletted" women politicians struggling to look forty something when now nearer sixty than fifty. As someone a lot nearer fifty than forty herself, I am actually being cruel to be kind when I say this.

Unfortunately for we more mature ladies looking "ten years younger" has been one of the great aspirations since the Blair Babe years. Indeed, it is now a requirement for "the boys" as well, with baby-faced male politicians like Cameron, Clegg and the Milibands all doing better than their more mature (looking) colleagues.

Poor "old" Alistair Darling had to point out, as in the BBC interviewer's words, he handed over to "the next generation" of Labour politicians that he did not yet have "one foot in the grave". How did British politics arrive at this advanced state of ageism, I wonder, and how can the body politic be restored to a more sensible demographic ?

Were it not the case that European politics still looks like a relatively mature state of affairs, I might have deduced that politicians become younger as their populations age, and younger countries have older leaders, based on the experience of Britain and Brazil, for instance. However, this would not explain the enduring success of "Mother Merkel" in Germany.

No, I think the cult of youth in UK politics must be the new "British Disease", reflecting a society dictated to and dominated by its visual media, including the British Broadcasting Corporation. Something needs to be done about this. Maybe it's high time we more mature women staged a continental-style coup, ejected those hair dye fascists, and sported French-style grey hair.

OH DELHI ! - The Commonwealth Games Fiasco

2010-09-24T11:23:00.005+01:00

Like the rest of what I suspect is the world's great silent majority, I do wonder what all the fuss is about sport; and I'm fed up with hearing about the problems of pampered elite athletes, particularly Australian ones and footballers....but that's another story.

So on one level, the Indian Commonwealth Games fiasco is almost welcome: a timely reminder that this a country struggling with development issues of far greater importance than the delivery of yet more world-class sporting facilities.

On the other hand, I very much support the idea of a Commonwealth Games, and hope that this one ultimately delivers a beneficial legacy and the next goes to Glasgow and does the same.

However, a more sensible perspective on sport is essential. People are increasingly comparing the current global obsession with the last days of the Roman Empire, providing a timely reminder to London's classicist Mayor, Boris Johnson, of the wider challenges facing his own country.

BRITAIN'S ECONOMIC SECURITY & FREEDOM

2010-09-16T16:23:00.004+01:00

In a week when Britain is "Doing God" with a visit by a Pope who once belonged to the Hitler Youth, it was a timely reminder this lunchtime from one UK military man that our country's economic security should be uppermost in the hearts and minds of every citizen, even if this means less expenditure on high tech weapons.

I'm probably not alone in wondering whether Tony Blair has long term Papal ambitions, even if New Labour "didn't do God", when Alastair Campbell was around anyway. Unfortunately, it did - and didn't do - rather a lot of other things which have potentially compromised the country's economic self-determination.

For a nation which prides itself, rightly or wrongly, on an independent political system, our present predicament should be a concern to all free-thinking people. I believe the Coalition Government is genuine in its aim to deliver economic security, even if I happen to disagree with some of its policies, which - thank the gods ! - I can do freely.

SHRINKING THE STATE OF CUBA

2010-09-14T09:49:00.004+01:00

It is interesting that the 2010 TUC Conference should co-incide with an announcement that Cuba is to reduce the number of state employees by around 20 per cent, or 1 million. Apparently, independent enterprise and self-employment are to be encouraged.

I have to say that my recollection of working with public employees in Slovakia shortly after the fall of Communism suggests that these people were better prepared for market realities than some of their British counterparts in 2010.

With hindsight it also seems that some countries in "The New Europe" have made a better job of governing themselves in the period since the collapse of the former Soviet Block, even in the absence of an equivalent of the British media class: or perhaps because of this.

UK TRADE UNIONS: THEY'RE NOT EQUAL TO IT

2010-09-13T11:02:00.010+01:00

I'm just reaching the denouement of a superb psychological thriller by the Labour Peer Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine, called "The House of Stairs". One of the book's central characters, Bell, often uses the expression "I'm not equal to it", although she is quite up to the job of murder.

In addition to being excellent genre fiction, "The House of Stairs" is also a fine novel whose story reflects on the excesses of the 1960s and the perspective of the more sombre 1980s. This is the time frame in which I now want to reflect on the role of trade unions, although my starting point will be the so-called "New Austerity" of 2010.

I began with a literary reference because one of the most sensible comments on "Unequal Britain" came recently from another Labour supporting writer, and former local councillor, Jonathan Myerson. Now I do not usually have much time for Myerson, but when he described the "New Poor" as people who have of necessity more than one low-paid job at the same time, he hit the nail on the head.

Most of these people will not be members of UK trade unions, nor will the comrades meeting this week in Manchester take very much interest in their plight. This is not to deny, however, that the unions have improved the lot of women working in low-paid jobs in the public sector, comprising a key part of its workforce, during New Labour's period in office.

The election of a Labour government in 1997 followed those "wilderness years" of the 1980s when the Party was widely regarded to be unelectable largely because of perceived trade union excesses in the 1970s, culminating in a "Winter of Discontent".

In fact, such excesses went much further back in to the post-war period, and were satirised in that brilliant film "I'm Alright Jack". Even the left leaning comedian, son of Communist parents, and now esteemed writer himself, Alexei Sayle, could acknowledge this in a rather good BBC Radio 4 "Archive Hour" retrospective, which humorously described his own experience of trade union conferences during the 1960s.

Nevetheless, the follies of the British trade union movement are by no means the whole story, nor are strong unions inevitably the enemy of economic productivity, as shown in Germany, even if this narrative has dominated their modern history in this country.

My own response to this narrative has however come full circle. I was skeptical of the movement by the late 1970s, a supporter during the 1980s, sympathetic when New Labour came to power in 1997, and skeptical again by the mid-noughties.

For the election of a Labour Government, with an unprecedented three terms in office, turned out to be a profound missed opportunity for the trade unions, who in turn contributed to the underlying problem of New Labour's lack of a viable political economy for government. In essence, both sold out to unsustainable market-fixing policies which enabled equally unsustainable levels of public expenditure: a political double-whammy if ever there was one !

Thus all the rhetoric currently directed by trade union leaders, and people like Labour Party leadership contender Ed Balls, at the Coalition Government's proposals to manage the economy and public finances sound extremely rich coming from a partnership which, aside from the speculative investment industry, have done most in recent years to create the very problems about which they now most vociferously complain. Talk about trying to get away with murder !

Green Party MP Job Share Proposal

2010-09-11T15:09:00.003+01:00

I very much support UK Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas's proposal for MP job shares. Like her, I would like to see much more sharing of powerful and well paid positions. Unfortunately, it's not just amongst Britain's over-bonused bankers that greed continues to be good. Listeners to BBC Radio 4's "Any Questions" this week will have heard Labour Party leadership contender Ed Balls's reluctance to acknowledge the possibility of sharing the position of shadow chancellor with his wife, Yvette Cooper. This greedy couple of class warriors - yes, there's still plenty of them around - both held Cabinet positions in the previous government, and were leading lights in promoting the kind of policies that contributed to the country's present financial and economic problems. I therefore find myself in the unlikely position of agreeing that two Balls would be even worse than one in this instance, notwithstanding my general support for the Green Party proposal.

A SHORT STORY ABOUT SAUSAGE ROLLS

2010-09-06T10:20:00.008+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, the Saturday edition of "The Times" carried a double-page spread on Lord Prescott. The article ended on the subject of sausage rolls, and our former Deputy Prime Minister's seduction by the offer of half a dozen from a girl at Greggs the Bakers in Hull.

The article also covered the issue of shipping, a favourite with the erstwhile hero of the Kyoto Agreement, and onetime Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

In short-crust - or puff for that matter - pastry terms, there is a lot more shipping these days, a source - or should that be sauce -not only of major direct impacts upon the environment, but also those nasty embedded emissions, a bit like hidden calories, with which BBC Radio 4's "Uncertain Climate" will deal this evening at 9.30pm. *

On the more mundane matter of food miles at home, it should be noted that around one in four lorries on British roads are involved in food distribution, and over half of these are empty, a reminder perhaps of pies that are all puff pastry and no filling.

Happily, this isn't true of Greggs', purveyor's of "The Nation's Favourite Sausage Roll". Sadly, the same cannot be said for British politics and its thick coating of media pastry during the Silly Season, to whose lack of content we should now all bid a not-so-fond farewell.

I, for one, shall be making a submission to the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee's Inquiry into the "Abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies". This will seek to separate the "phoney war" - or puff pastry if you prefer - around housebuilding targets for the English Regions, from the more meaty issues at stake.

* Please see also http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com

UK HOUSEBUILDING: THE PHONEY WAR

2010-09-04T16:19:00.006+01:00

As Summer draws to a close, and with a new government now in place, the resumption of what can only be described as a "phoney war" by the UK's large scale housebuilding sector, and its adherents, has once again gathered momentum.

Historically, the big beasts of the UK housebuilding industry have enjoyed some of the highest profits in their sector, based upon international comparisons. This has led to calls from the wider development business, as well as consumer groups, for the industry to be better regulated.

However, whilst some anti-competitive practices amongst major housebuilders and construction groups have been identified, notably with regard to price fixing in public procurement, much of the sector remains, quite simply, unreconstructed.

One of the main reasons for this is the industry's unrivalled public affairs infrastructure, which is supported by organisations like the Institute for Housing and the National Housing Federation, who have a remarkably uncritical relationship with commercial construction interests.

Both these reputable organisations should know full well that commercial house builders are not going to develop more houses than they can construct, sell or rent at a profit - notwithstanding any affordability or social subsidy component - for the market.

The fact that the UK market is delivering an all time low number of dwellings at present is, to put it simply, "the nature of the beast", or more accurately, "the nature of the big beasts"; and all the rhetoric around this reality little more than a phoney war.

PLEASE END FERTILITY CULT POLITICS

2010-09-02T11:15:00.004+01:00

It must surely be testimony to a profound lack of content - and perhaps sheer boredom factor -in Blair's autobiography and the Labour Party leadership contenders' debate, published and broadcast yesterday, that the media should choose to focus instead on William Hague's sex life.

In adopting the cost-saving measure of sharing a twin-bed hotel room with a young male adviser during the recent general election campaign, the Foreign Secretary has fallen prey to prurient minds, of which there are indeed a very great many, and a general presumption of something untoward in this arrangement. Surely, if Mr Hague had been having an affair with his young adviser he wouldn't have been so blatant about it !

However, the Foreign Secretary's response to allegations of an affair have touched the heart of the matter: Mr Hague's failure to pro-create with his wife, or anyone else, and thereby fulfill the requirements of the fertility cult which has dominated British politics in recent years.

The fact that Mr Hague has been forced to make "a detailed and emotional statement" (Metro) to explain the situation is testimony again to the low levels to which politics, and wider political commentary, in this country has sunk.

As for the propriety of the young adviser's appointment, our corridors of power would surely be empty if everyone was up to the job, as anyone who encountered the political entourage of former London Mayor - and Phallus-in-Chief - Ken Livingstone will be aware.

British Politics: Not a Game of Cricket

2010-08-31T10:20:00.005+01:00

Whilst the world of cricket may be fretting about the latest match-fixing allegations, "No Balls" has been good for British politics in recent months as far as I'm concerned.

I refer, of course, to the Ed Balls campaign for the Labour Party leadership. Mr Balls basically wants a return to the days of "Spend, Spend, Spend" government on the back of the Blair-Brown speculative bubble, and he's advocating the kind of economic "match-fixing" policies which brought us to the current state we're in.

With that opening spin, I'd like to set out my wider views on the forthcoming Labour Party leadership elections and, indeed, my own political perspective at the present time.

To adopt a biblical reference and deal with the last first, I'm not so much interested in the particular political party species these days: with the possible exception of the lizard-like Ken Livingstone, who has, incidentally, thrown his balls in with Ed. It is the wider ecology of politics which concerns me, including the sustainability of the habitat generally known as "Centre-Left".

Now, it seems to be that the other Ed - Miliband that is - and Diane Abbott are the creatures best evolved to occupy this territory, Mr Miliband probably having the superior intellect, and Ms Abbott more common sense.

With regard to the wider political landscape, my guess is that at some future time socio-economic climate change may be accompanied by a shift in the tectonic plates of party politics, to borrow a favourite phrase of Lord Prescott, and a new social democratic grouping may emerge comprising some former Labour and Liberal-Democrat Members or Parliament.

However, such a "Rainbow Coalition" is not quite yet on the horizon; and whether the present terrain turns out to be "Brokeback Politics" or something more lofty has I think for most people yet to be determined.

Postscript : As an "old environmentalist", I would strongly caution against the creation of a "New Green Movement" based upon the development of GONGOS - Government-Organised Non-Government Organisations - of the kind found in China, for instance.

FIRE & FLOOD - ACTS OF GOD OR MAN ?

2010-08-12T14:36:00.008+01:00

The recent forest fires in Russia, together with flooding in Pakistan and China, have dominated the world news this month. Wider climate change aside, abnormally hot and wet weather, linked to changes in the Gulf Stream and seasonal monsoons, has been identified as the root cause of these natural disasters.

However, Russia has experienced increased forest fires over a number of years, including devastating outbreaks in the far east of the country. The cause of these is largely "anthropogenic" - they are started by people - and other "human factors", including lack of strategic fire defence infrastructure, have undoubtedly exacerbated the latest catastrophic outbreaks.

Similarly in Pakistan, resources allocated for flood defence and emergency services seem to have been lost to corruption or incompetence. Additionally, there is the problem - shared with China - of development pressures associated with a growing population which inhabits areas prone to natural disasters.

In other words, these so-called "Acts of God" are very much "People Problems". Of these, it is clearly Pakistan that faces the greatest set of challenges. As well as countries such as Britain and the United States, it is to be hoped that the wider Islamic world, particularly wealthy nations in the Middle East, will come to the assistance of the people of Pakistan, and also that those nationals hitherto engaged in terrorism will now turn their energies to disaster relief.

BP - NOT BEYOND POLITICS

2010-07-28T12:13:00.003+01:00

News that outgoing BP chief executive Tony Hayward is to pursue business opportunities in Russia suggests to me that he would make a good replacement for the former parasailing donkey, Anapka. The now famous ass, rescued by the Murdoch media machine - aka The Sun newspaper - was forced to fly through the air by a Russian entrepreneur to advertise a nearby private beach, much to the horror of those enjoying the public seashore beneath the braying beast. Sea-loving sportsman Mr Hayward seems like a fair swap for Anapka - who has been signed-up by Spurs Harry Redknapp according to The Sun's website - and Prime Minister Putin might invite the BP bete noire to sing some old Soviet songs at his summer dacha. Sounds fanciful ? So does Hayward's payout to most sensible people. However, if the man's a donkey, his BP colleagues in the US are asses along with a good few people in their government.